Edward's Anatomy
by drtammy1511
Summary: "Edward's Anatomy" takes place 5 years after New Moon. Edward never came back, and Bella moved on, marrying Jacob. Now she has been accepted to medical school. What will transpire when she discovers that 2 "people" from her past will be in her class? How will her life be forever altered? (Be pre-warned: there is some non-cannon pairing before the promised HEA.)
1. Chapter 1

"_Edward's Anatomy" takes place 5 years after New Moon. Edward never came back, and Bella moved on with her life, marrying Jacob. Now she has been accepted to medical school in Seattle. What will transpire when she discovers that two "people" from her past are going to be her classmates?_

**Disclaimer: Stephenie Meyers owns all.**

**Chapter 1 - Accepted**

BPOV

The day started out as so many before it had. I got up and took my shower, quickly putting my hair up in a make shift bun. I grabbed a granola bar and shoved it into my mouth as I gathered my books and rushed to my car. I quickly kissed my husband good-bye as I put my bookbag in the seat next to me. I started out of the driveway giving him a wave which he returned until I drove out of sight. The drive was torture. I had to drive from Forks to Seattle where I was finishing up my BS degree in Biology with a Chemistry minor. I turned on the radio and turned it up full blast, anything to keep me awake while I was driving. My first class at 8:00 was Comparative Anatomy. We were studying the digestive system and how it changed from the fish to the amphibians to the reptiles to the birds to the mammals. I could easily take between five and seven pages of notes per day. My second class of the day was Physics II. It was easier, though boring. My third class of the day was Human Reproduction. It was a graduate level course, and we were studying the sex hormones and how they controlled the development of the primordial ovary into either the ovary or the testes. My fourth class of the day was spanish IV. It was my most difficult class. I never could understand why there were Biology classes for non-majors but there weren't language classes for non-majors. I was required to take the same Spanish class that Spanish majors took, competing with them for the grades that I needed to maintain.

I had finally finished my morning classes so I went to the student union to get a bite of lunch before I went to comparative anatomy lab. We had already dissected a perch, a frog, a turtle, a robin, and today, we were starting our dissection of the cat. Luckily, it was a triple dyed specimen so that the arteries were dyed red, the veins were dyed blue, and the lymphatics were dyed yellow. It made the dissection so much easier. I had already read over the specifics for today's lab. It wasn't unusual for us to have a quiz before lab to make sure that we'd studied what we needed to do, so I habitually prepared for all comparative labs. My lab partner and I worked well together. He and I were both vying for spots in the upcoming medical school class, and we needed the grades for our transcripts, so he was almost always prepared for the labs like I was. We were able to complete the assigned lab in half of the time that most of the other students took. We spent the rest of the lab writing up the extensive lab reports that we had to turn in at the beginning of the next lab period. He, like I, had applied to the University of Washington School of Medicine's Early Admittance Program. Basically, the program functioned to allow you to apply at one university only, and in exchange for applying to only that university, you would be notified of acceptance or rejection six months before everyone else who were applying through traditional application processes. Thomas, my lab partner, told me that he had received his acceptance letter in the mail on the Saturday before. He wanted to know if I had received mine. I told him that I hadn't in a shaky voice, but that I hadn't checked my school mailbox today either.

When lab was over for the day, he offered to walk me to my mailbox. I accepted with gratitude, already nervous and starting to shake a little. Going to medical school was a new dream of mine. I had always thought that I would pursue a degree in English Literature or something like that, but when he left me and took his family with him, my best friends, gone, I broke. I stayed broken for the longest time, until Charlie, my father, convinced me to see a psychiatrist. She was able to make me see that I was a person who could stand on my own two feet again. I didn't need a man to hold me up. She made me see that though I loved him, and I would always love him, I could move on with my life without him. I was able to eventually date again, and I met and married my husband, Jacob Black. I didn't know that I wanted to follow in her footsteps and go into psychiatry, but I did know that I found medicine a fascinating field. I only hoped that I would make a difference in someone's life the way that she made a difference in mine.

Thomas and I walked back to the Student Union. The student mailboxes were in the basement. We walked downstairs, and I lead the way to my mailbox. It had been awhile since I'd checked my school mail. Most of my mail came to my home address. I had to try several times before I got the right combination to the mailbox. I pulled out several pieces of mail, most of which were advertisements. I walked over to the large garbage can that was by the wall and threw them away. Then I found the envelope that I'd been looking for. The return address was from the University of Washington School of Medicine. My hands shaking, I dropped my bookbag to the floor. I turned the letter over and carefully slit open the flap. I took the letter out of the envelope, but didn't open it. I stood there for several minutes just staring at the parchment that I held within my hands. Thomas put his hand on my shoulder and said, "Bella, are you going to open it, or are you going to read it through osmosis?"

I shook my head a little to clear it. What I held in my hand was my future. It was what I had been working towards for the past four years. It held my dreams and my hopes. I didn't know if I had the courage to open it. "I don't think that I can open it," I said. "What if they said 'No'?"

"Bella, they accepted me. You know that your grades and your MCAT score were better than mine. You know they accepted you. You don't have anything to worry about. Just open the letter," Thomas said.

I hesitated. I knew that I had the grades. I had a 4.0 GPA. I also knew that I had an acceptable if not good score on the MCAT, the Medical School Admissions Test. I deep down knew that I was a sure in. However, that insecurity started popping back up. That insecurity that I'd had since he'd left me telling me that he didn't want me any more, that I wasn't good enough for him. If I wasn't good enough for him, then I wasn't good enough for anyone else, either. I closed my eyes and thought back to my therapy sessions. I am good enough. I am smart. I am special. I can do anything that I put my mind to.

I took the letter and opened it.

Dear Bella Black,

The University of Washington School of Medicine's Admissions Board would like to congratulate you on your acceptance to the early admittance program for the freshman class of the year 2008 – 2009. Fall semester will commence on August 1, 2008. There will be a freshman tea at Sand Point Country Club on September 30, 2008 at 3:00 pm. More information concerning required materials will be forthcoming.

Respectfully,

George Anderson,

Dean Of Admissions

I finally realized that I was holding my breath. I let it out. I looked at Thomas, and a big grin spread across my face. "I made it in! I'm going to medical school!" I cried out, starting to jump up and down. I leaped into his arms and wrapped my arms around his neck! I gave him a kiss on the cheek. He laughed and started twirling me around. When he noticed that we were drawing the attention of a not so little crowd, he set me back down on my feet. I started jumping up and down again. "I don't believe it! I'm going to go to medical school! I got in! I don't believe it!" I exclaimed in a not so quiet voice.

"Congratulations, Bella! I knew that you would get in. I told you that you would," Thomas said, taking both of my hands in his, trying to calm me down. "Come on, let's go upstairs and get a Coke." He reached down and picked up my bookbag. He pulled me over to the table in the middle of the hallway and put my bookbag down on it. He took the letter from my hand and refolded it. He then put it back into the envelope and put the envelope into my bookbag. Then he took my hand and led me upstairs to the cafeteria. He found an empty table and told me to sit. Before I knew it, he was back with two Cokes. "Bella, you've got to calm down. There is no way that I'm going to let you drive back to Forks when you're this excited. You'll get into an accident."

"I got into medical school. I didn't think that they'd want me. I mean, why would they want me? And they did! They accepted me! I can't believe it. I had convinced myself that they would turn me down. But they let me in! I'm going to be a doctor! Can you believe it?" I said, barely pausing to take a breath.

"Yes, Bella, I can believe it. I've known you for three years, now, and I know how hard that you've worked for this. I know how much you and Jacob have sacrificed for you to come to college. I know how much you've wanted this. Now, don't you think that you need to let Jacob know?" Thomas said, pushing the Coke over towards me.

I took a sip and then another. It helped me to gather my thoughts. Of course I needed to call Jacob. He would be so thrilled. I looked at my watch. I knew that today, being Monday, was one of his patrol days. While Thomas knew Jacob and had even been to our house, he had no idea about Jacob's little secret. Jacob and the other Quileute boys still patrolled the areas around the reservation. Since the Cullens had left the area they didn't patrol as much, but Sam and Jacob still saw to it that the area was still covered. It was a quarter till five o'clock. I may still be able to catch him before he phased. I picked up my cell phone and dialed his number. It rang several times before he answered.

"Hi Bella, what's up? Is everything okay?" Jacob asked.

"No, Jake, everything is wonderful! I got a letter from the University of Washington School of Medicine today. Guess who is going to be going to medical school?" I said.

"Bells, that's great, honey! I knew that you could do it! Congratulations! I've gotta go meet the guys right now, but you know that I'll let everyone know! Honey I'm so proud of you! Gotta go. I hear Quill howling at me to join him. Bye," Jacob said.

"Bye, Jake. Have fun with the guys. Give them my love," I said. "Don't give Sam a hard time tonight."

"What, he couldn't take the time to talk to you? Going out with his friends is that important to him that he couldn't even spend five minutes on the phone with you to congratulate you on your accomplishment?" Thomas asked, aggravation evident in his voice.

"He is late for a meeting that he has every Monday night with the guys," I said, trying to make up a story that Thomas might believe. "It's important."

"Obviously he thinks that it is more important than your news. I thought that you meant more to him than that," Thomas growled.

"Thomas, there are things that you don't understand. The meeting involves the security of the reservation, the protection of me and everyone that lives on the reservation. Jacob is an integral part of the team that is responsible for that security. He has to go. I don't hold it against him."

"So, you're going home to an empty house?" Thomas asked.

"No, I'm going to go to my dad's. I usually go there when Jacob goes to his meetings. That way I get to see my dad. Now, thanks for the Coke, and I'll see you Wednesday." I stood up and grabbed my bookbag. He stood up as I got ready to leave. I gave him a quick hug and started towards the door.

"Bella, drive carefully," he said.

"I will," I called back. I left him standing there. Sometimes I wondered if it were really possible for us to have friends outside of our world. Nobody could know that I was married to a werewolf. Who would believe me if I tried to tell them that. _Hey Thomas, Jacob isn't going to go to a meeting tonight. He is going to transform into a giant wolf and run around in the woods to make sure that no vampires are coming back to pay us a visit._ Yeah, it would be a short trip to the padded cell in a psyche ward for me. I guess that I really think that nobody would ever believe me. After all, werewolves and vampires are things of comic books. Nobody in their right mind would believe in them. That is what my problems all stem from. My husband is a werewolf and my ex-boyfriend was a vampire. Yep, my life is some kinda screwed up. That's why I was in therapy, but I couldn't tell my therapist that. She'd really think that I was crazy if I told her why I was going crazy. Oh what a funny world we live in.

But, today I'm not thinking of that. Today, I got into medical school! I felt like climbing to the highest mountain and screaming it at the top of my voice. As it was, I developed a lead foot on my way home. My luck held out until I reached the outskirts of Forks. There, as I passed into the town limits, I looked into my rear view mirror to see the dreaded flashing blue lights behind my car. I said a few choice words and pulled over to the side of the road. I rolled down my window and watched as the police chief got out of his car and walked up to mine.

"Where the hell is the fire?" he exclaimed.

"No fire unless you've been trying to cook again," I said.

"Then would you care to tell me why exactly why you were going so fast in my town?" he asked.

"I was trying to get home to tell my dad some great news!" I said with a grin on my face.

"You'd better not be pregnant!" he said.

"Dad, no, I'm not pregnant, but if I were, it would be okay. I am married."

"Well, what is the news that made you rip through my town like a bat out of hell?"

"I got a letter from the University of Washington School of Medicine today. I've been accepted to medical school for the upcoming fall semester!" I practically yelled.

"Oh Bella! That's wonderful! Way to go sweetheart! I'm so proud of you! Now, do you think that you can drive to the house at a reasonable rate of speed, or do I have to arrest you and take you there myself?"

"I'll drive home, daddy. I'll see ya there!" I said as I pulled back onto the road and drove to my childhood home. I pulled into my spot in the driveway, and Charlie pulled in beside my. When he got out of his car, he came up to me and gave me a huge hug. I didn't think that he'd ever let go. We normally didn't show much affection, so this was a big thing for Charlie. When he finally let me go, he had tears streaming down his face. He put his arm around my shoulders, and we walked into the house.

"Does Jacob know?" he asked.

"Yes, I managed to get in touch with him before he left for his meeting," I told him as he unlocked the door. We walked inside the house, and I went into the kitchen. I went to the cabinets and started pulling out the ingredients to make some spaghetti.

"Why don't you let me take you to the diner to celebrate tonight? You shouldn't have to cook for your old Dad tonight. Today is special."

"Dad, you know that I don't mind cooking for you. It's not any trouble at all."

"No, I know that you don't mind, but I want to do something nice for my only daughter. Come on, put that stuff up. Let's go," he said, tugging at my arm. The smile on his face did little to conceal the pride that he felt in his heart, so I gave in. Sometimes you had to give in and let your parents be proud of you. I put the pot back under the cabinet and put the spaghetti back in the cabinet. I took his hand, and we walked back outside to our cars. I followed him back into Forks to the local diner, and we parked in the crowded lot. I didn't recognize any of the cars in the parking lot that belonged to the local teenagers. It didn't seem like that long ago that Mike's and Tyler's cars would grace that same parking lot. I didn't know where that time had gone. It didn't seem as if five years had passed since he left, taking his whole family with him. Five years since I was truly happy. Five years since I had had a night without having a nightmare, dreaming of him leaving me. Five years since I had truly loved. Oh, I had learned how to mask it all. My therapist had taught me that, and I'd always be grateful for those lessons in self-control and discipline. I had learned how to fake a life, and I was good at it.

So, I took a deep breath and got out of my car. I went up to my dad and put my arm around his waist. We walked into the diner and took his favorite booth. The waitress came up to us immediately. "We're celebrating tonight! Bella just got accepted into medical school. My baby is going to be a doctor!" Charlie announced to the people in the diner. Everyone started clapping, and I started blushing. "Katie, get me my usual, and whatever Bella wants,"

"I'll take the spinach salad and a Coke, please," I said. While we waited on our food, we talked about what going to medical school would mean. He wasn't happy when I told him that I'd have to move to Seattle. "Dad, I'll be in class for most of the day. I can't commute every day. The drive would be too much for me. The studying will be too much, not to mention lab time. There is no way that I'll be able to live on the res and commute. Jacob and I have talked about it some, and I think that he understands that there is no way that I'll be able to do it without staying in Seattle."

"Well, will he be moving to Seattle with you?" Dad asked.

"No, his job is here. He is part of the security force for the res, and they count on him. There is no way that he can move to Seattle."

"Bella, he can get another job in Seattle. As for their 'security force,' honey, I think that they have just gotten a group of friends who like to get together and have boys' nights out. I've talked to Billy about this before, and he is very vague about what it is that the boys are actually doing when they go to their 'security force' meetings. I'm afraid that Jacob is not being totally truthful with you. I don't think that he is necessarily doing anything wrong, but I don't think that he is telling you the whole story about what that group of young men is doing when they get together, either. I don't want you two to be apart for the next four years based on this 'security force' thing. I really don't think that it is on the up and up. I can look into it for you if you want me to."

"Um, no thanks Dad. I know what Jake is doing when he goes to the meetings. I know all about the security force, and I know how important it is to the tribe and to the res. Dad, Billy is vague with you because you aren't part of the res. It is sacred to the Quileutes, and it's not to be shared with those not associated with the res. You have to trust me on this one, okay?"

"Okay, Bells, if you say so, but I still think that it is taking a big risk with your marriage to be apart like that," Charlie said as the waitress brought us our food. We spent the rest of the evening talking about Dad and Sue, a widow from the res that he had been dating for the past several years. I asked him if he was ever going to get around to asking her to marry him, and he sputtered and hemmed and hawed.

After spending a couple of hours together, I told him that I needed to get going. I had a lot of school work that I needed to get started on in addition to some laundry that needed doing. He walked me out to the car and gave me another big hug. "I'm so proud of you, Bells. You just don't know how proud you have made me. You have overcome a lot in the past five years to get to where you are today. For a little while there, I didn't think that you would ever come out of that funk that you were in. You had me so scared that I was going to lose you, but then you did. You snapped out of it. You made yourself whole again. You took control of your life and made a new goal and now you've achieved it. You are a remarkable young woman. I couldn't be prouder of you, Bells."

"I love you, Dad," was all that I could say. I knew that I had him fooled just like all of the rest. I got into my car and headed towards home. I pulled into the driveway, and I parked my car in it's usual place. I walked into my empty house. I tossed my bookbag onto the couch and walked into the master bathroom, gathering the scattered clothes as I went. I grabbed the laundry basket and took it to the washer to start a load of clothes. Then I went back into the bedroom to shower and change into my bed clothes. When I came out, the washer was done, so I put the first load into the dryer and started a second load of clothes. Then I went back to the couch to study. Even though I was already accepted to medical school, I still needed to keep my grades up. I was doing my Spanish homework when I dozed off. The next thing that I knew, Jacob was pulling the book out of my hands. He picked me up off of the couch and carried me to bed. He laid me down and told me to go back to sleep. I rolled over and got comfortable, sleep taking me back to my dreams of him and the time when my life was perfect.

I woke up late the next morning. My classes were on Monday's, Wednesday's, Friday's. I used Tuesday's and Thursday's to do housework and to study. Jacob was already at work, so I didn't have to deal with him today. I spent the day going over comparative anatomy. That class had the potential to kick my ass. I could only hope that by knowing most of the terms, I would have a step up in anatomy in medical school.

When Jacob got home, I had supper ready for him. We sat at the table and ate in silence. After we ate, he helped me with the dishes. Then we went into the den and sat on the couch. "Bella, I'm so proud of you. You've got to know that. I told all of the guys last night, and they're proud of you, too. I just am not looking forward to you going to Seattle for the next four years. Are you sure that you can't continue to commute?" Jake asked me.

"Yes, I'm sure, Jake. You know how much commuting three days a week is taking out of me. now. I'm tired all of the time. I'm moody. I barely have enough time to study, and that's with taking two days a week off. In medical school, I'll basically be in class from 8 in the morning until 5 in the evening. There's no way that I'll be able to commute and still have time to study. I won't even be able to even come home on weekends. You'll have to be the one to come to me to visit."

"Bella, you know that I have my job, and when I'm not working, I have to patrol. I patrol on weekends. Exactly when am I supposed to find the time to come and visit you?"

"Maybe Quil or Embry will take one of your patrols. It's not like you've never taken one or two for them before," I answered quietly.

"We'll see," he answered.


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: Stephenie Meyer owns it all.**

**Chapter 2: Getting Ready**

The next few months passed like wildfire. Before I knew it, I was graduating Summa Cum Laude with my undergraduate degree. Jacob and I spent the summer together, our free time spent at First Beach, just hanging out with the gang. These boys, Quil, Embry, Seth, Sam, and the others had become brothers to me in the past 4 years since Jacob and I had been married. I hated to leave them, but as July came to an end, I knew that my time with them was drawing to a close.

The week after I graduated, Jacob and I went apartment hunting. It was a good time because so many graduates were vacating their leases. We found me a one bedroom apartment only a few blocks from the medical school. We put a deposit down on it, and signed a year lease to begin in July. I started packing my clothes and the other things that I would be taking with me during the second week of July, and we rented a U-Haul on the third weekend of July to move a bed, a table and chairs, and a couch to the apartment. I really didn't need anything else. Quil and Embry helped us move. I went to Wal-Mart and bought a cook-set, plates, glasses, and some towels and washcloths. By Sunday, I had everything set up in the apartment.

Monday I went by Financial Aid and signed for my student loans. I had also won a moderate scholarship which I also signed for. I went by Campus Security and got my student ID made. I registered my vehicle for student parking. I went to our bank and opened a new checking account for the loan money. Then I took my required items list and set off to go shopping. I went to the bookstore in the basement of the medical school and started looking around. I had no idea what books to buy. The requirements list didn't say anything about books. Luckily, there was another student in the bookstore, an upperclassman, who noticed the blank stare on my face. He introduced himself as Henry Covington, a third year, and said that he was just as lost his first year. He showed me the anatomy section and showed me the labels under the textbook. Then he showed me the anatomy lab manual, the anatomy atlas, the embryology textbook, and the biochemistry book. I couldn't fathom how we could cover the amount of material in a book the size of the biochemistry book. It was about 6 inches thick and weighed at least ten pounds. I then started on the list that I had been mailed. I gathered two long lab coats, a dissecting kit, a box of gloves, and extra #10 scalpel blades.

I lugged the books to my car. Then I went to Wal-Mart. I bought ten plastic binders, several packs of black pens, several packs of multi-colored highlighters, and twenty packs of college ruled paper. I also bought several sizes of sticky pads. I bought some groceries, mostly non-perishables, and then I made my way home. I unloaded everything and sat down on the couch pulling out the anatomy textbook. I thumbed through the first chapter. It didn't look really bad. I started reading it. It soon got in depth concerning the muscles, nerves, arteries, and veins of the back. I found that I would have to read a paragraph two to three times just to begin to understand what information the paragraph was trying to convey. One paragraph would have twenty to thirty facts, all of which would be important. If I tried to highlight the important facts on a page, I would be highlighting basically the entire page. I was soon overwhelmed with the amount of information in the chapter, and I realized that my old ways of studying would no longer work for medical school. After several hours of trying to memorize the muscles and their origins and insertions, nerve supply, and arterial supply, I got up and decided to call Thomas. I felt like I would definitely need his help to get through this year.

I dialed his cell phone, and he picked up on the second ring. "Hi Bella. How was your summer?" he asked.

"Fine. I didn't do a single thing. How was yours?" I asked.

"Good. I did as little as I could get away with. What's up?"

"Where are you?"

"I'm at my apartment. Why? What's wrong, Bella?"

"Have you picked up your books yet?"

"No, I thought that I'd go get them later this week. Why?"

"I got them this morning. I started reading the first Anatomy chapter. Thomas, I'm scared. I don't think that I'm going to be able to do this. There is way too much information. The entire chapter is important. There isn't any filler material. I think that I'm in over my head. There isn't any way to memorize this much material," I said, panic starting to find an edge into my voice.

"Bella, hundreds of people have done it before you, and hundreds will do it after you. You are a bright young woman who is definitely capable of doing the work. I know that you will be able to hang. Where are you living now?"

"Ivy Ridge Apartments, number 5A. Can you come over? I'm really freaked out. This is going to be impossible. I'll go with you to get your books. I think that I saw some anatomy flash cards that I want to get."

"Sure, Bella. I'll be there in about an hour, but Bella, I really don't think that you'll have anything to worry about," he said.

"I hope not. Bye, Thomas," I said, hanging up the phone. I went into the kitchen and made myself a sandwich. I really did hope not. Thomas was right. There were hundreds, no thousands, who had made it through anatomy before I did. Nothing made them more special than me. I had graduated with a 4.0 GPA from college, but this amount of material was something that I had never faced before. I didn't know how I was going to assimilate the vast amount of knowledge on a daily basis. Oh what had I gotten myself into?

Before long, Thomas was knocking on my door. He was a sight for sore eyes. I gave him a hug before grabbing my purse and following him to his car. We drove back to the school, and I pointed out the books that he would need. I also helped him gather the other items. While we were in the anatomy section, I picked up a box of anatomy flash cards. We made our purchases and returned to my apartment.

I made us a couple of Cokes, and we sat down on the couch facing each other, Indian style. He picked up his Anatomy textbook and began thumbing through chapter one. He told me that it didn't look so bad, and I laughed at him. I told him that I thought the same thing until I started reading it. He turned to the first page and started to read. I couldn't help it. I had to watch his face as he began to comprehend what I was talking about. His eyes, while at first eager to begin his medical school studies, soon turned concerned, and then visibly showed the trepidation that I had been feeling for the past several hours.

"Oh my God! Who could possibly learn all of this? Every word is important," he said after about thirty minutes of reading and only turning the first page of the text.

"I know." I couldn't help but to laugh. "I feel so overwhelmed. I recognize several of the muscle names, like the trapezius and the latissimus dorsi, the supraspinatus and the infraspinatus, and so forth, but the origins and insertions, the arterial supply and the innervation. I'm so lost not even Hansel's bread crumbs would help me out of this mess, and I haven't even looked at the lab book or biochemistry yet." I took the box of flash cards and started pulling out the muscles of the back that were covered in the first chapter. I took out my atlas so that I could get a good picture in my head of what the muscle looked like and exactly where it was, and Thomas did the same. Then we started quizzing each other. At supper time, I made us a couple of sandwiches, then we resumed studying. We called it quits at about 10 o'clock. We had managed to learn about half of the muscles very well, with the other half at least being familiar to us. Thomas left to go back to his apartment, and I crawled into bed, mentally exhausted.

During the night, I again dreamed of him. Tonight's dream was more vivid than usual, though. I saw him walking in a crowd, his bronze hair blowing in the wind. I called out to him, and he turned, looking at me. He gave me that grin, the one that always melted my heart. Then he walked towards me. I felt faint, and my eyesight began to grow dark. I felt myself falling, but I never hit the ground. His hands caught me, lifting me up, steadying me back on my feet. Then he looked me in the eye. As his lips moved towards mine, I woke up, shaking in the bed. I was reaching for him, but he wasn't there. I felt a cry rising in my throat, but only a whimper came out as I realized that it was only a dream. He wasn't holding me in his arms. He wasn't about to kiss me. He left, and he wasn't coming back. I turned over in bed and curled up into a ball. I cried the tears that I never let anybody see me cry, tears for what I had lost, tears for what was never coming back, tears for my soulmate.

I looked at the clock on my nightstand. I was only 4 o'clock in the morning. I knew that there was no way that I'd be able to go back to sleep after my dream. I never could. I got up and went into the kitchen. I got a bowl of cereal and opened the lab manual. I started to read the first few pages. It looked like we would be starting our dissection on the back. It didn't look like the dissection would be all that complicated. First, we would be peeling back the skin to display the superficial layers of the back. There were some nerves that ran through the muscles to the skin that we'd need to watch for, but otherwise that was pretty much an easy enough step. It didn't seem to get complicated until we were cutting through the superficial layers of the back muscles to reveal the deep back muscles. Then we would have to be careful of some arteries, veins, and some more nerves. I took the atlas and reread the dissection instructions, comparing the two. It made sense, so I put it to the side.

I looked at the clock, and I had used up 2 hours. Jake should be up by now, so I thought that I'd give him a call. I dialed his cell number and let it ring until his voice mail answered. I figured that he was in the shower, so I left him a message to have a good day at work and not to wear himself out on patrol. I told him that I'd talk to him later and hung up. I picked up the biochem book and started to read chapter 1. At least every word in this book wasn't important. There were some a's, and's, and the's, I thought almost laughing out loud. After I had read the first chapter, I laid down on the couch and took a nap. There wouldn't be many more of those in the months to come. I thought that I'd enjoy one while I still had a chance.

I spent the rest of the week doing basically the same thing. I'd read and study, take a nap, study with Thomas, and go to bed. It was peaceful during the day. I was living an uneventful existence, with the exception of my nighttime dreams, of course. As each night progressed towards the beginning of school, the dreams became more and more realistic, more believable, more intense, and more sensual. In my dream on Saturday night, the night before the Freshman Welcome Tea, not only did he catch me when I almost fainted, he whisked me out of the room and off into the woods where we kissed and held each other in the sunlight, his skin sparkling and giving off rays like thousands of prisms. I woke up from that dream gasping for air, again reaching for someone who would never be there.

As I woke from the dream, I again found tears in my eyes. Why would my dreams be all of a sudden worsening? Was it because Jacob wasn't with me at night? Was he somehow keeping my dreams at bay? I wasn't sure what it was, but I was starting to have a hard time coping with these dreams. Before, the dreams of him were really just snippets of him here and there, a glimpse of him in a crowd or one of his piano pieces in the background of a conversation. Now, he was everywhere, in every capacity. I was starting to think of him during the day. I would find myself thinking of him when I was supposed to be reading. Last night, while going over flash cards with Thomas, I zoned out, and Thomas brought me back to reality when he wiped a tear off of my cheek. He had wanted to know what was wrong with me, but Thomas has never been privy to my background of major depression and history of him. I just blew it off as stress, and I think that he bought it. He packed up our books and pushed me out of the door. He took me to Wendy's and got me a Frosty saying that we all needed a stress reliever every now and then.

Then we headed to the Sand Point Country Club for the Freshman Tea. I was the daughter of the Police Chief of Forks, Washington. I had never been to a country club in my life. Thomas, however, was the son of successful attorneys. He actually belonged to the Sand Point Country Club, so he was familiar with the lay of the land so to speak. He drove us to the building where the tea was being held and parked. He came around and opened the door for me. He took my hand and escorted me into the building. There was a young lady at a table in front of the room who was making name tags. Thomas and I told her our names and got our name tags. After putting them on, we went into the room proper. There were many people already there. I immediately felt uncomfortable. I tried to hang back, but Thomas took me by the arm and escorted (basically drug) me into the crowd. I started to see some people that I had known from college. They were cordial but not overly friendly. An older gentleman walked up to Thomas and me and introduced himself as Dr. Anthony Fields, Dean of Students. He congratulated me on my scholarship and said that he was sure that I'd live up to his expectations. He asked me if I was anxious to get started, and I told him that I was extremely nervous. He laughed and said that the brightest students always were. He then excused himself and went on to some other students.

"Well, that was interesting, wasn't it?" I asked Thomas.

"Bella, why do people keep having to tell you how special you really are?" he replied.

"Because I'm not special. I'm forgettable, and I'm not worth keeping," I whispered, turning away from him. As I looked up, I thought I saw it, that bronze hair that I knew so well. I started walking that way, making my way through the crowd. When I got there, I realized that I was mistaken. What I had thought was his hair was just an artificial plant up against a staircase. I was going completely nuts.

Thomas caught up with me. "Where were you going, Bella? You took off like someone was after you. What the hell?"

"I thought I saw someone that I used to know," I said. "I was wrong. I'm sorry if I scared you Thomas. Let's get back to the party." I took him by the arm and led him back into the crowded room. "Why would he be back for me? He left me. He didn't love me. He said so," I whispered to myself.

"Did you say something?" Thomas asked me, turning me to face him.

"No, nothing important," I said, turning back to the crowd. "Hi, I'm Bella Black and this is Thomas Gates," I said to a blond girl who was staring at Thomas.

"Nice to meet you," she said to Thomas, extending her hand to him. He shook her hand. "Is that Gates as in the attorneys Gates?"

"Um, yeah, that is my family," Thomas said.

"Oh, how nice. They do a lot of work with my family. I'm Amanda Miller, of the Crowson's," she said.

"Nice to meet you Amanda. I don't know any of the people that my family works with. I never took any interest in the family business, and they never pushed it on me. It has been a pleasure to meet you though," Thomas said, taking me by the hand and pulling me away from her. Once we were across the room from Amanda, he leaned over and whispered into my ear, "She is a gold digger from hell. Her family makes a living suing large companies for millions of dollars for frivolous things. I hate that my family is involved with them. I think that they are bad news, but my uncle says that money is money, and he'll take it where he finds it. My grandfather would turn over in his grave if he knew what my uncle was doing to his law firm. At least my dad and my brother are trying to change things for the better."

"You never told me that your family was important," I said.

"You never asked, and I loved the fact that you didn't care. I have always hated the fact that people became my friends just to get an 'in' with my family. You always seemed different."

"That's because I don't know anything about your family. They may as well be like my family."

We stayed for another hour. We met several other students and a couple of the professors. Thomas drove me back home, and then he left. I took my cell phone and dialed Jacob's number. He finally picked up after 4 or 5 rings.

"Hello, Bella. How are things going? I miss you like crazy!" he said before I had a chance to say a word.

I laughed and said, "Hi, Jacob. I'm as nervous as a long tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs. I got my books at the beginning of the week, and I've been reading up on the first chapter of the anatomy and biochem books. Thomas and I have been studying all week, and the amount of information is staggering! We went to that tea this afternoon, and we met a few of the students and some of the professors. I just don't know how I'm going to do this, Jacob. I'm worried."

"You'll do fine, Bella. I know that there aren't many people there that are smarter than you. If they can do it, you can do it, too. I have faith in you."

"So where were you when I called earlier this week? Why didn't you call me back?"

"I've been taking more patrols lately. I'm going crazy without you here. The house is too quiet without you. I basically go to work and then patrol. I sleep for a couple of hours a night. I guess I didn't call back because when I was available to call, I hoped that you'd be asleep. How is Thomas? Has he been over a lot?"

"He's okay. He is just as overwhelmed as I am. Yes, he has been over every afternoon. He is going to be in my study group, so I'll be seeing him everyday. There is no way that I'll be able to learn the material by myself."

"Now don't you go and fall in love with Thomas, you hear me," he laughed.

"Jacob, don't go and get jealous. You know there is only one man that I love," I said.

"Yeah, Okay. Bella, I've gotta go. I promised that I'd join Seth during his patrol tonight. The guys have been great to keep me occupied since you left. You'd think that they're my mom or something the way they've been watching out for me."

"They'd better. I'd have to whoop some wolf butt when I see them again if they didn't. Are you eating well?"

"Yeah, Emily is feeding me along with the rest of the pack. She has taken me under her wing as well."

"Okay, Jake, I'll talk to you later. Love and kisses,"

"I love you, too, Bella. Gook luck tomorrow. Bye."

"Bye," I said, hanging up the phone. It was good to know that the pack was taking care of him. I needed to drop a card off to Emily to thank her for feeding Jake. He wouldn't eat right if it was left up to him to feed himself.

Speaking of eating, I fixed myself something, and went to sit on the couch. I thought about Jacob and realized that he was going to do fine. The pack would definitely take care of him. He would be kept entertained and fed. He wouldn't be lonely. They would see to it that he wouldn't be alone. As I thought of Jake, my thoughts turned to how he took care of me after he left me. Jake was one of the people who had brought me back to reality when I wanted to just curl up and die. He never gave up on me. He would come to my house and sit with me, just talking, telling me that I was special and that he was my friend and that it hurt him to see me hurting so badly. He would tell me that I was wasting away, and that my laughter was something that kept him going. He was missing the sound of my voice. He was missing my smile. And yet, he continued to come over to my house daily. He gave up going out with his friends. He just payed attention to me, trying to pull me out of my funk. Between him and my psychiatrist, I recovered. I knew that I owed my current life to them.

It was with these thoughts that I went to bed. I fell into a fitful sleep. Again, I dreamed of him. I saw him in a hallway. He was walking in front of me. I ran through the crowd to catch up with him, pushing people out of my way. I finally caught up with him and grabbed his hand. He stopped and turned around. He had a look of surprise on his face, and he gazed into my eyes. He grinned. I lost my breath. He took me into his arms and kissed me. I leaped into his arms, and he carried me away, the whole time kissing me, whispering that he loved me and that he was sorry to have ever left me. I woke up with tears on my cheeks. I looked at my clock. It was 6 o'clock. I might as well get up. Today was the first day of medical school.


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: Stephenie Meyer owns it all.**

**Chapter 3 – The First Day**

Well, it was finally here, my first day of medical school. I was so pumped, yet, I was also extraordinarily nervous. I got up and showered, and I fixed breakfast, today making sure to eat something of substance. I cleaned the kitchen, and then I went to get my books together. I didn't know which classes we would be having today, but I didn't think that I'd need to lug the textbooks to class. Firstly, I had already read the chapters, and secondly, they were heavy. I decided that I'd take the lab manual and the atlas in addition to my two folders, one for anatomy and one for biochem. I grabbed my school ID and headed out of the door. I drove to the school and parked in the student parking garage.

I took a deep breath and grabbed my bookbag. I got out of the car and made my way into the school. I didn't know where to go, and I almost panicked. I should have known that the medical school did this every year. They would know that they had a whole class that didn't know where to go on the first day. As soon as I walked into the doors, I saw a sign that said, "Freshmen, Orientation in Lower Auditorium at 8:00 am." Then there was an arrow pointing down a hallway. I followed the arrows until I found a group of double doors with Lower Auditorium on a plaque on the door. I took another deep breath and opened the doors. I walked into the room. There were a smattering of people already in the auditorium, scattered throughout the room. I looked around, hoping to see Thomas, but he wasn't here yet. I took a seat on the right side of the room, about half way down. I liked to sit on the right side of the room because with me being right handed, I could sit in the desk turned facing the speaker and still be able to write. It was a silly habit, but it really made a difference to me. I pulled out one of my notebooks and took some paper out of it. I took out a pen and was ready.

Thomas made his way into a seat next to me about ten minutes later. He tossed down his bookbag, and by the weight of it, I knew that he had brought at least one of the texts. He leaned over and gave me a peck on the cheek. "How are you doing this morning, Bella?" he asked.

"I'm scared shitless, and you?" I asked, grinning.

"Ditto. I'm also excited. I can't wait to get started. This is a dream come true. I know that you are feeling the same things that I am. Here we go. We're off to see the wizard!" he said taking my hand in his and giving it a squeeze.

"What book did you bring? That bookbag is too heavy to be just notebooks and a lab manual."

"I brought the anatomy book. I don't know why, but I thought that we may need it. I left the monster biochem book in the car, just in case. I forgot the atlas though."

"Well, I brought the atlas, so I've got you covered, but I didn't bring either of the texts."

"May I have your attention? Everyone settle down, please. My name is Dr. Anthony Fields. I am the Dean of Students. I met some of you yesterday afternoon at the Freshman Tea. I want to welcome all of you to the University of Washington School of Medicine Class of 2012. Today is a momentous day in each of your lives. Today marks the beginning of your medical education. From this day forward, each of you will belong to an exclusive fraternity, membership granted to only a select few who have endured countless hours of sacrifice to achieve the necessary prerequisites to join our little group. From this day forward, you will continue to sacrifice, your time, your family, your patience, and even your sanity to be successful in this field that we lovingly call medicine. Take a look at the person to your left and at the person to your right. At the end of this grueling year, one of those people will very likely not be with you. This year is a year of intense basic science. You will learn human anatomy, embryology, histology, neuroanatomy, biochemistry, and physiology. Your professors are here to help you. They each have office hours posted on their doors. Use them.

Now, to get down to some business. You, as a class, need to elect class officers. Positions available include President, Vice-President, Secretary, and Treasurer. I wish you all of the luck in the world and hope that your medical education is all that you hope that it can be. Now, I would like to turn the microphone over to Joshua Huggins, the President of the Sophomore Class. Joshua..."

"Hi. I'm Joshua Huggins, like Dr. Fields said. I am here this morning to let you know a couple of things that you need to know to get you started. First, each of you has a mail slot where you can pick up items left for you by the administration, other students, or the note taking service. Your mail slots are located up on the seventh floor, just outside of the gross anatomy lab. Secondly, you also need to set up the note taking service. This is something that is not necessarily endorsed by the administration, however, each class seems to be loathe to do without it. Some of the professors will proof the notes, and some will not. Basically, it works like this. One person will be responsible for taping the lectures. The tape is set up in the projection room in the upper or lower auditoriums. The student responsible for taping the lecture is responsible for starting and collecting the tape. They then hand the tape off to the person who is scheduled to transcribe the lecture for that hour. The person has twenty-four hours to have it transcribed and typed and brought back to the courier. One person will serve as the courier for the semester as well. He or she is responsible for taking all lectures to the printer and picking up all copies and distributing them into the mail slots. There is a semester fee for the note taking service, usually $100 to cover the expense of copying the notes. Our class goes alphabetically skipping the taper and the courier. Thirdly, and finally, you should each have a name in your mail slot of a second year. This person has been assigned to be your buddy. They should have copies of last year's notes for you to have so that you can follow along with your lectures. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask any of us. We've all been there. Thank you."

I looked over at Thomas and grinned at him. We were actually here. We were starting our medical school education. The time was now. He grinned back at me. Life was good.

Another speaker rose and walked to the podium in front of the auditorium. He had a clipboard which he gave to the student at the end on the first row. He said, "Good morning. I am Dr. Elliot. I am the head of the Department of Biochemistry. I am passing around a clipboard with a sign-in sheet on it. Please sign next to your name. You are expected to attend at least eighty percent of all lectures. Biochemistry will meet from 8 until 10 o'clock, Monday through Friday. Biochemistry Problems will meet from 1 until 5 o'clock on Wednesday afternoons. It is your responsibility to make sure that your name makes it onto the sign in sheet. If you are caught signing in for another student, it will be considered a violation of the honor code, and you could be removed from this school. I am also passing around a syllabus. Please make sure that you get one. So, if there aren't any questions, let's begin."

I noticed that someone in the back of the auditorium got up and went to the tape recorder and turned it on. Dr. Elliot began his lecture. Instead of beginning with Chapter One of the textbook, he began with chemistry equations, with converting moles to grams, finding out predicted grams from a reaction, finding grams percent, etc. Most of it was basic chemistry that I'd had in the past, so it was pretty much a review. He talked for the whole alloted time period. I found that I had 12 pages of notes. I looked up at Thomas when we were through and shook my hand. He looked at me and mouthed, "I know."

Before Dr. Elliot left the room, he told us that our next class would be gross anatomy. It would meet in the same auditorium at 1 o'clock this afternoon. As soon as he left, Thomas and I stood and stretched. I looked at him and said, "That wasn't all that bad. At least I've seen all of it before."

He grinned, "Yeah, I guess that they didn't want to overwhelm us on the first day, huh." It was then that Amanda walked up to us. She was dressed in a too tight shirt and a too high skirt.

"Hi Thomas," she said, "How did you think that lecture went? I thought that he was going awful fast. This is going to be crazy, isn't it?"

"Well, it wasn't too bad," Thomas said, "Bella and I were just talking about it. We've both had all of this information before, so we don't think that it'll be all that hard. It's just memorizing a couple of formulas."

"Amanda, have you seen that dreamboat that was sitting on the other side of the room? OMG, he's to die for. He was sitting beside a girl, but I don't think that they're together, together, you know what I mean. I mean, neither one of them had a ring on," a blond haired girl said as she ran up to Amanda.

"No, where is he?"

"Oh, they've gone now," she said. "Oh, are you going to introduce me to this fine young man?"

"Well, yeah, I guess. Grace Minor, this is Thomas Gates. Thomas, this is Grace Minor," Amanda said.

"It's nice to meet you, Grace. Now if you girls will excuse me, I've got to go," Thomas said taking me by the arm and pulling me away with him.

"What would you do if you didn't have me to get you away from all of the girls that throw themselves at you, Thomas?" I asked him, laughing.

"I don't know, Bella, but let's not find out, okay. One day I'm just going to pretend that you're married to me. Think that'll make them go away?"

"No, but it might make Jake beat your ass," I said.

"Jake knows that I'm not interested in you that way," Thomas said with a smug grin on his face. "You know that I don't have eyes for anyone else besides Laura. She is my one and only."

"Yeah, Thomas, I know. We've just got to make her realize that," I said. "When are you going to tell her that you love her?"

"Never. You know that I'm not allowed to love her. It can never be. I'll just have to love her from afar."

"Thomas, you're not really related. She's your step-sister. That's not blood related. You could tell her. She probably loves you, too."

"No way. Don't even mention it again. That would be too weird. She can't ever know how I feel about her. Promise me Bella. Promise me that you'll never tell her. I trusted you with my innermost secret. Now you've got to promise me that you'll keep it. I'd die if she ever found out how I feel about her. Promise me."

"I don't agree with it, but I promise," I said. "By the way, where are we going?"

"I thought that we'd go to the library. Maybe get a little studying done, maybe go over the lab for today," Thomas said.

"Okay, that sounds good," I said following him down the long corridor between the lower auditorium and the library. When we got to the library, we began looking for the group rooms. We finally found them on the second floor. We went into an empty room. It had a dry erase board covering one wall. The outside wall was made of glass, There was a table with six chairs. We sat down, and I pulled out the lab manual and the anatomy atlas. Thomas and I went over the dissection and referenced the atlas at each step. We felt that we had a good handle on the dissection, so we went back over the notes from the morning biochemistry lecture.

At noon, we left the library and went to get something to eat. The line in the cafeteria was long, but it didn't take too long to get through it. We got a student discount by showing our ID's. We went and sat down at one of the tables. It wasn't too long before a couple of our classmates approached our table. "Hi, I'm Ralph Tisdale and this is Tony Harris. I believe that you two are in our class. You are freshmen aren't you?"

"Yes, I'm Bella Black and this is Thomas Gates. Won't you join us?" I asked.

"Thank you. What did you think about that lecture this morning?" Ralph asked.

"It was okay. Thankfully it wasn't anything new. We've both had it before," Thomas told them.

"Yeah, for a first lecture in medical school, it was pretty easy. I'm worried about anatomy, though. Have either of you looked at the book?" Tony asked.

"Yeah, we got our books on Monday. It didn't take long to make us a little panicked," I admitted. "We've been studying the muscles of the back all week."

"I haven't looked at it, yet. What's so bad about it?" Ralph asked.

"Well, every word in the chapter is important. It's every muscle with origin, insertion, arterial supply and innervation. It's a little bit overwhelming," Thomas said with a shudder. "At least the dissection for today seems straight forward."

"You mean we have a dissection for today?" Tony asked with fear on his face.

"I would think so," Thomas said. "I don't think that they would put it off just because it is our first day. Oh my, look at the time. We've got to get going. It is ten till one. It was a pleasure meeting you, Ralph, Tony." Thomas and I got up from the table and took our trays to the tray return window. We then returned to the lower auditorium and took our seats. I took our my other notebook and got out some paper. There were some papers down on a table in the front of the room, so I went down to the front of the room to see what they were. There were several stacks of the same papers. It was a syllabus, so I took two of them. I went back to Thomas and gave him one. Sure enough, we had gross lab today.

As we got settled, another professor walked to the podium. He said, "My name is Dr. Moore. I am the Head of the Department of Anatomy. I am passing around a sign in sheet. Please sign next to your name. It is your responsibility to make sure that your name is on the sign-in sheet. Please do not sign in for any of your classmates. If you sign in for any of your classmates and it is discovered, you may be removed from this school. You are required to attend 80% of all classes and labs. I highly recommend that you do not miss labs. You will have lecture from 1 until 2 o'clock Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday. Gross Lab will be from 2 until 5 o'clock on the same days. The code to the gross anatomy lab is 5121. You may study in the gross lab anytime, 24 hours a day, but you may not bring anyone who is not a medical student into the lab. If you are caught bringing a non-student into the lab, you will be removed from this school. The people who have donated their bodies deserve to be respected. They have made the ultimate sacrifice in allowing you to use their remains for your education. You will not make fun of them; you will not make jokes about them; you will honor them. Without men and women like them, you would not have cadavers to study. Today, before you go into the lab for the first time, you will sign for and get your bone boxes. The bone boxes each contain a complete human skeleton. You will use these for origins and insertions of various muscles. On top of each bone box is your cadaver station. You will work in groups of four, two to each side of the cadaver. There is a locker on the seventh floor where you may store your books and lab coats. Your name is already on the locker. Once your name is called, proceed to the gross lab and find your station. There will not be a lecture today. Nobody is to begin until everyone is present in the lab."

I waited anxiously for my name to be called. They weren't going alphabetically. Thomas' name was called before mine. He gave my hand a squeeze before he went down front to sign for his bone box. I seemed to wait forever. Finally, Dr. Moore called out, "Bella Black." I stood and picked up my bookbag. I made my way down to the front of the room. He handed me a three foot by two foot by one foot box. On the top of it was a diagram of the anatomy lab. There were elongated tables, five to a row with about 5 rows of tables. I was on the first row, on the right side of the middle table. I signed a form stating that I'd received my bone box. I picked it up and carried it with me to the elevators down the hall from the lower auditorium. I took the elevator to the seventh floor and looked around. There were several people at the lockers, so I walked over to them looking for my name. I found it quickly and put my bone box into it. I then pulled my lab coat, a pair of gloves, and dissection kit out of my bookbag. I put the rest of my things into the locker. I then walked into the anatomy lab (the door was propped open). I made my way to the left side of the room, going to the table in the middle, although when I got there, I realized that it wasn't a table. It was a tank of some sort. I could tell by the smell in the room that there was formaldehyde in the tanks. The smell was pervasive but not overpowering. I looked around the room and found Thomas. He was on the row next to mine, on the middle table, on the right side. Basically, we were next door neighbors. I was thrilled. I walked over to him and gave him a big hug. I knew that I'd be okay with my penultimate lab partner next to me.

I stood there talking to Thomas as the room slowly filled. I didn't pay attention to anyone else until Dr. Moore walked into the room and told us to settle down. I went back to my station. My lab partner was a nice looking young man who introduced himself as Eric Brown. Dr. Moore stood in the middle of the room and explained to us how to open our tanks. It was fairly straight forward. We opened the lids, each folding back to either side of the tank. Then we went to the head and the foot of the tank. There were levers on either end. We had to pull on the lever, effectively raising the head and the foot out of the formaldehyde. We then locked the lever under the tank. The room was suddenly saturated with the odor of formaldehyde. I looked at our cadaver. It was a male, approximately in his early 60's, crew cut, mildly obese. He didn't have any tattoos or other body markings that I could see. He was face down. I stepped back. It was very strange seeing an actual dead body. Dr. Moore told us that we were to work on pages 5-16 of the lab manual today.

In the back of my mind I heard other people introducing themselves to each other. I could have heard someone say, "Hi, I'm Edward Cullen, and this is my sister, Alice." I stopped dead in my tracks. My face must have gone pale, because Thomas was at my side in a second.

"Bella, what is wrong? Bella? Are you alright? Bella?"

I looked around me, first to the left. No, not there. Then I looked to my right. I took a step so that I could see around the people who were standing in the way. There! There they were. He was there! I saw his golden eyes. Then the world went black.

"Bella, come on back to us," I opened my eyes, expecting it to be another dream, but when I opened my eyes, there he was. I reached up and touched his cheek. It was just the way that I remembered it, cold and hard. He grinned.

"It's really you!" I whispered, "You're not a dream?"

"Yes, it's really me. I'm so sorry that I left. I don't know what I was thinking."

"And Alice?"

"Here I am, Bella. I've missed you so much," she said as she came over and took my hand.

"And Carlisle, and Esme, and Emmett, and Rose, and Jasper?"

"All of us. We're all back. We're here," Alice said.

"Who are you? How do you know Bella? Bella, who are these people?" Thomas asked.

"Thomas Gates, these are my best friends, Edward and Alice Cullen. I haven't seen them or their family in over 5 years. I was just stunned to see them. When they left, I thought it was for good."

"Why haven't you ever told me about them? Why hasn't Jake ever told me about them?"

"Well, it hurt too bad to think about them. It hurt too bad when they left town. Jake doesn't care for them very much."

"Bella, we'd better get back to the lab. People are starting to talk. We'll catch up later. I promise. I won't leave you again," Edward said. He helped me to stand up, and I walked back to our cadaver.

I looked at Eric and told him that I was sorry. I explained to him that I wasn't someone with a queasy stomach, but that I'd seen someone that I thought was dead. He told me that he probably would've fainted in the same circumstances. I laughed and suggested that we get started on the dissection. The left hand team had already made an incision down the center of the back and had already started to, for lack of a better term, skin the back. I started on our side. It wasn't difficult. I had no idea how thick the skin on the back actually was. We identified the nerves as we went, and after twenty minutes we had finished the first step. We proceeded from there. We identified the strap muscles that started on the base of the skull and ran down the back. We identified the trapezius and the latissimus dorsi. We identified the blood supply and the innervation. Then we started the dissection of the deep muscles of the back. We weren't finished with that before the lab time was finished, but we all agreed that we had done enough for the day. We were even with the groups around us, and according to our syllabus, we had another day to complete the assignment. We cleaned our instruments and washed our hands. We left lab and I checked my mail slot. I found the name of the second year who was supposed to be my buddy. There was also a list of my classmates and a lecture listed by each name. I went to my locker and put my lab coat inside. I got out my bookbag and as I got up, I felt someone breathing on my neck. I turned around and found that I was looking into those amber eyes again.

My breath left me, and I fell into his arms just like I had so many times in my dreams. I laid my head on his shoulder, and he ran his hand through my hair. "I missed you," I whispered.

"I missed you, too," he said, pulling my face up to look at his.

"You left me. You left me in the woods; you left me broken; you didn't want me; you didn't love me."

"I always loved you," he said. "I just didn't want you to get hurt."

"You hurt me. You broke me. I died that day."

"You married Jacob."

"I did what I had to do. Jacob kept me breathing. He allowed me to fake a life. I never stopped mourning for you. I never stopped loving you."

"Do you love Jacob?"

"No. He is my friend. Why are you back?"

"Honestly, Alice wanted to try her hand at medical school, but she wouldn't come alone, so I told her that I'd come with her. I had no idea that you were here. I have a feeling that Alice knew all along. I knew that you'd married that dog though."

"Don't, Edward. No name calling. I live with them. I like them. They are good people."

"They stink."

"As you do to them."

"Talking about the dogs," Alice said, walking up on the conversation.

"Alice, I asked Edward not to call names, and I'm asking you, please don't call them dogs. I like them. Seth, Embry, Quil, they're good men. Now I've got to ask you. Did you see me being in this class? Is this the reason that the two of you are here?"

"Well, you've been very hard to see because of your relationship with the do.. um with the wolves. You know that they confuse the picture, but I did see you get accepted, so I made plans to get the two of you back together. Bella, you don't know how miserable he has been without you," Alice said.

"Alice, I'm married, and Edward left me. I can't just go back to him like nothing has happened."

"Bella, I don't want to interrupt this little party, but if we're going to go study, we'd better get going," Thomas said.

"Alice, Edward, I'll see you tomorrow," I said, leaning in to give Alice a kiss on the cheek and to hug Edward. I gave him a kiss on the cheek, and tears began running down my face. I stepped away and walked towards the elevators. I stayed silent on the trip down to the first floor.

"Your place or mine?" Thomas asked.

"Mine," I answered when I reached my car. I put my bookbag on the seat beside me. I drove in silence to my apartment. When I got out, Thomas ran to catch up with me. He took my keys out of my hand and unlocked the door. He took my books from me and led me to the couch where I could sit. He went into the kitchen and poured me a Coke. He brought it in to me and sat down next to me on the couch.

"Do you want to talk about it?" he asked.

"Not really. It goes back a long way," I said, tears flowing freely.

"Do I need to call Jacob for you?" he asked.

"No! Please don't. That'll only make things worse. Edward and Jacob are old enemies."

"You can't keep it all locked up inside. Do you want me to call your dad?"

"No, he can't know that Edward is back!" I cried.

"Then Bella, talk to me. If I'm the only one who doesn't hold a grudge against Edward, then talk to me. You can't bottle these feelings up."

"Well, it started my Junior year of high school. I was the new girl in school. Edward and his family were stand-offish. They didn't really fit in. They were the adopted children of the town doctor and his wife. Alice was dating her adopted brother, Jasper, and Emmett was dating Jasper's sister Rose. Edward was alone. He and I began dating and got really serious. I was accepted into his family, and I thought that I'd be with Edward forever. Then after an accident on my birthday, Edward and his family moved away. They left me without any real notice. Edward took me into the woods near my home and told me that they were leaving. I told him that I'd move with them, that I wanted to be with him for the rest of eternity. He told me that he didn't want me and that I wasn't good for the family. He left me in the forest. I tried to chase him as he ran away from me, and I got lost. They had to send a search party to find me. I went into a deep depression lasting the entire year. Jacob was instrumental in pulling me out of it. I never quit loving him. He has my heart and always will, but Jacob was good to me, and he took care of me when I was down, so when he asked me to marry him, I said, 'okay.'"

"Wow, you do have quite a history with him. I can see why the men in your life don't like him very much. He hurt you badly. Can I ask you a question?" I nodded. "Do you love Jacob?" I looked down at my lap. I bit my lower lip. "Do you?" I shook my head, no.

"Jacob is a friend. He was there for me when I needed him to be. I love Edward, and I always will. No matter what he did five years ago, Edward is my life. I've had dreams about him every night since he left me. They have never gone away. I guess I've always hoped that he'd come back for me."

"Are you going to leave Jacob for Edward?"

"Oh, God! I don't know. I can't believe that he is back. I somehow think that I'm still in one of my dreams. I can't hurt Jacob like that, but I love Edward. I don't know what I am going to do, Thomas. Jacob has stuck beside me through thick and thin. I know that he loves me. He would do anything for me. Edward has left me broken. I don't know if I can trust him, even though I love him with all that I am. If you have an answer for me, please let me know."

"Bella, you are my best friend. All I want is for you to be happy. If you are happy with Jacob, then I want for you to be with Jacob. You have seemed to be happy with Jacob, but that was before Edward was back in your life. If Edward is who it is going to take to make you happy, then I want you to be with Edward. I could punch him for leaving you in the first place, but I don't think that you would be happy with that."

"No, that would definitely not make me happy, Thomas. Besides, you would get hurt. Edward is much tougher than he looks."

Suddenly, the doorbell rang. "I wonder who that could be. I'm not expecting anyone," I said as I got up to answer the door. Thomas got up and walked to the door behind me. I opened the door, and I was surprised to see Edward and Alice standing outside.

"Are we interrupting anything?" Alice asked.

"No, not anything important. Come on in. Let me formally introduce you to my wonderful friend and study partner, Thomas Gates. Thomas, this is the love of my life, Edward Cullen, and his sister, Alice Cullen. I noticed that you're not going by Hale. Are you and Jasper not married yet?"

"Well, you know how Jasper is. He hates weddings. For now, I'm stuck being Alice Cullen. Hopefully I'll talk him into a wedding soon, though. You know that I couldn't get married without you as maid of honor, Bella. Rose is just to self-absorbed to be an effective maid of honor, you know with her own wedding to plan."

"She got Emmett to agree to a wedding?"

"Yes, and Emmett is fighting mad. She threatened to hold out on him if he refused," Edward laughed. "You know how Emmett is. He made it about a week, and then we caught him humping the couch. We made him agree to the wedding."

"What did Esme say?"

"Well, Esme made him pay for a new couch, and then she made him work in the garden for a week," Alice laughed.

"I can't wait to see everyone again. That is if they want to see me," I said, grimacing.

"Are you kidding? They wanted me to bring you by tonight. Carlisle is furious with Alice for not telling him that you were in our class before today. Esme can't wait to cook for you. She's been missing that. Emmett is beside himself, and Jasper. Well, Jasper doesn't know whether you will want him there or not. After your birthday and all. He wants to see you, but he'll leave if you want him to. He wants to apologize to you in person. And, you know Rose. She is Rose."

"First of all, Alice, you tell Jasper that I don't hold anything at all against him. Nothing that happened on my birthday was his fault. It was my fault. I was careless. I love him like a brother, and he'd better have his ass there when I do see the family. He has nothing to apologize for. If anyone needs to apologize it is me. I'm the one who put him at odds with his family. And as for Rose, screw her."

Alice leaned over to me. I could tell that if she could cry, she would be. "I'll be sure to tell Jazz. He'll be so relieved. He really wants to see you."

"Go back and get him. Bring him over. Let me tell him now."

"We should study," Edward said.

"Yes, we will, after I talk to Jasper," I said. "Go get him, Alice." Alice left the apartment and returned about 15 minutes later. She knocked on the door. I went to the door, and Alice and Jasper were standing there. I walked outside and closed the door. "Jasper! I've missed you so much!" I said as I reached up and hugged him around the neck. I kissed him on the cheek. "I want you to know that nothing that happened on my birthday was your fault. I know that you have been blaming yourself for all of these years. I also know that some of your family probably blamed you, but trust me, it was my fault. I was careless. Jasper, please forgive me for putting you in that situation. My carelessness almost destroyed your family, and I'm deeply sorry."

He pulled me into his arms. "Bella, darlin', it wasn't anymore your fault than it was anyone else's. I should have been able to control my thirst which made it ultimately my responsibility. I'm sorry that I ruined your birthday party. I feel responsible for Edward's leaving you. I hope that you will forgive me."

"Let's just say that it is all water under the bridge. Jasper, you and I are friends, and nothing is going to change that. As far as I'm concerned, nothing happened. We are good. Now come on inside and spend some time with me." He nodded and took Alice's hand.

I opened the door and led them inside. "Thomas, I'd like to introduce you to Jasper Hale, Alice's, what, boyfriend, betrothed, husband?"

"Oh, heck, I guess you could say betrothed, couldn't you Ali-cat?" Jasper said.

"Yeah, eventually," Alice said, leaning back into Jasper's chest. Edward sat back against the couch, and I sat between his legs and laid back onto his chest. Thomas got comfortable on the couch. "Okay, where do you guys want to start? I suggest that we go over the biochem that we went over this morning, then we go over the first part of the anatomy chapter. Any other suggestions?" There weren't any other suggestions, so we started on the biochem. Edward was able to make up some samples for us to go over. We were able to go over the problems without any difficulty. Alice wrote some problems down and handed them to Edward who folded the piece of paper and slipped it into my book. Then we started going over the flashcards. Edward soon established that he knew the material already (he should, this was only his 4th time through medical school). He took to calling out the flash cards for the other three of us. I would occasionally see Alice start to have a vision, and I would kick her. It wasn't fair for her to see the answers before she had to think of them. She just grinned at me and answered the questions. The four of us studied until 10 o'clock. Thomas got up and said that he had to go. The others said that they'd be following him out soon. I walked Thomas to the door, and he asked me if I was going to be okay. I told him that I would be fine, and he gave me a kiss on the cheek. He then left, and I turned to Alice and Jasper who were standing, ready to leave. Alice gave me a hug and a kiss on the cheek. Jasper also gave me a hug and a kiss on the cheek. Alice looked at Edward and said that they would be running home. They would see him later. They walked outside and waved good-bye.

I was left alone with Edward. He came up behind me and wrapped his arms around me. I felt so good in his arms. I turned around and put my head onto his chest. I held him close. He reached down and kissed the top of my head. I felt like he had never left. I felt so natural in his arms. It felt right. I looked up at him, into his amber eyes. I wanted to melt into him, never leaving him again. He bent down and touched his forehead to mine. Our lips were close to each other. I was breathing fast, and I wanted him to kiss me. However, I knew that it wasn't possible. I broke away from him, turning my head away. I placed it back onto his chest, letting the tears flow.

"Bella, love, I'm so sorry. I know how much I hurt you. I can't ever make it up to you. I love you so much. I never stopped loving you. I was wrong to leave you. I was wrong to take the family away from you. You are my reason for existing. I can't go on for eternity without you."

"Then you'll change me?" I asked, a quiver in my voice. I had been wishing for him to offer me that since I'd fallen in love with him.

"Bella, love, for now, I just need to be with you. If I were to change you, you wouldn't be able to finish school. You'd be a newborn for a year, and you'd possibly need to stay away from humans for up to ten years. I don't want to change you until you're done with school, but yes, I'd consider changing you. I never want to live without you again for eternity. These five years have been hell on earth. If I have to go to hell, I want to go with you."

"Edward, I love you. I've never stopped loving you. I don't know what to tell you. I don't ever want to be without you again." He leaned his head down. He lifted my fact to look at him again, and this time, he kissed me. It was a light kiss, his lips gently brushing mine. My body shook, from head to toe. He wrapped me into his arms and lifted me off of the ground. He picked me up and took me into the bedroom. He laid me down onto the bed. He leaned over and kissed me again. This time, the kiss was harder, more passionate. He ran his hands through my hair, and I ran my fingers through his. I grabbed him by the waist and pulled him into the bed to lie beside me. I rolled onto my side, and continued to kiss him.

After a while, he pulled away and said, "Bella, you need to go to sleep. We have a big day in front of us tomorrow. I love you, and I won't leave you if you want me to stay. Just say the word."

"I need to get ready for bed. Will you hold me, like you used to do?" I asked as I crawled out of bed. He nodded as I got my night shirt and went into the bathroom. I brushed my teeth and went back into the den to get my cell phone. I plugged it up next to my bed and crawled in next to Edward. Just as I was snuggling with him, the music came on that signified a message.

I looked at the message. It was from Thomas. It said, "Are you alone?"

I typed back, "No."

He typed back, "How many people are still with you?"

I responded, "One."

"Is that a good idea?"

"I don't care. We're just sleeping. Good night, Thomas."

"Good night, Bella. Just be careful, k."

"K. We'll be good, daddy." I shut the phone.

"Who was that?" Edward asked.

"Thomas. He wanted to make sure that I'm okay."

"Did you tell him that I'm still here?"

"Yes, I did. I also told him that you're staying."

"Won't he tell Jacob?"  
"No, he is my friend, not Jacob's. He just wants me happy," I said, reaching up to give him another kiss. He kissed me back, adding some tongue action to the kiss. I groaned and reached up to his head to pull him into me harder. Again, he pulled away.

"Sleep my Bella, sleep. I'll be here when you wake up in the morning." I snuggled down into his body, my face in that spot on his chest that I was oh so familiar with all those years ago. He started humming my lullaby, and soon I was drifting off to sleep, the first night in five years that I didn't have a dream of Edward.


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer: Stephenie Meyer owns it all.**

**Chapter 4: Discussions**

When I woke up the next morning, I thought that the whole day was a dream, though a wonderful dream it was. Then, I rolled over and saw him looking at me. I realized that it wasn't a dream at all. Edward was back, and he was here with me. I smiled at him, and he leaned over and kissed me. I put my arms around his neck, and he pulled me closer to him. I could feel the cool of his body up against mine. It felt right. He pulled away from me and said, "Bella, you need to go and get ready. I have to go and change clothes. I will see you at class. I love you."

"I love you, too. I always have, and I always will," I said getting out of the bed and walking with him to the front door. "This is going to get complicated, isn't it?"

"I don't want to complicate your life, Bella. I just want you to be happy. I'll do whatever it takes to make you happy."

"You are my world. You being back brings me back to life. You make me happy. I just don't want to hurt Jacob in the process."

"We'll take it one day at a time, then. I won't do anything to compromise your relationship with Jacob."

"We've already done that, Edward. You are back, and I've already admitted that I love you more than life itself. I've already kissed you and spent the night in your arms. I can't go back from there even if I wanted to. I don't think that Jacob will understand me sleeping with you, do you?"

"No, I don't. I'm sorry to have put you in that situation, Bella, but I've dreamed of holding you in my arms every day since I left you. I'm not sorry that I stayed. I can't lie to myself or to you and say that I would do it differently if I had the chance to change things."

"Me either, Edward. I wouldn't change a thing. I just think that we need to be more discreet in school. Several of the students know that I'm married from college, and I don't think that it would be a good idea for you and me to flaunt our relationship in front of them. I don't look forward to telling Jacob that you're back in my life, and I don't want it coming from one of them. I've told Thomas about our past, and I trust him to keep it to himself. He isn't very happy with you for leaving me, but I think that he will grow to accept you in my life when he sees how happy you make me."

"How well do you know Thomas? How did you meet him?"

"Thomas and I met during our second year of college. We basically had the same schedule in all of our classes the first year, but didn't meet. When we were in the same classes the second year, we ended up being lab partners for organic chemistry. We worked very well together, and we quickly became fast friends. We studied together frequently, and our study styles meshed. We found that we could talk about anything with each other. He came over one weekend, and he and Jake hit it off. He's been my best friend ever since."

"He was your best friend, but you never told him about me?"

"No, I never told anyone about you except my therapist. Dad made me go into therapy after you left. He thought that I was suicidal, and honestly, I was. I didn't see any life without you in it. I didn't want to go on. Between my therapist and Jacob, I was able to find a way to pretend that I was getting better and could have an existence without you in it. Honestly, it was all a sham. The only thing that kept me going was school. For some reason, I made a goal to go to medical school, and I put all of my efforts into that goal, to the exclusion of everything else. Now, here I am, and I found you again. It must have been fate!"

"It was fate, or Alice, who knows which it was! Now, Bella, you've got to go and get ready, and I've got to go. We're both going to be late, and you don't want people talking. Shoo!" He kissed me again, and he walked out of the door. I looked at my watch and realized that I was so going to be late. I raced through my shower, just putting my hair into a bun and threw on some old jeans and a too big T-shirt. I grabbed my bag, thankful again for the fact that I always packed it when I finished studying. I ran to the car and raced to school, parking as close as I could to the front of the parking garage. I grabbed my books and practically ran to the lower auditorium. I rushed in and quickly found Thomas and took my seat. It wasn't two minutes later that Edward and Alice came into the room and took two seats behind us. Thomas looked at me, and then he turned around and looked at Edward. He wasn't smiling. I looked at Alice who didn't have a hair out of place, and she grinned at me. She leaned over and said, "I knew that we wouldn't be late. Why rush?"

I laughed and turned back around in my seat. I got my paper out and got ready to take notes. The professor had entered the room, and had started the sign in sheet circulating. He had also started circulating a handout. Then he went to the front of the room and started his lecture. He prefaced it with the news that Friday would be our first exam. It would cover all of the calculations that they were covering during the first four days of class. I looked at each of my three friends in turn. Of the three of us, Alice seemed to be the least affected. Of course, I thought, she already knew. Oh how I was going to ream her a good one for not sharing that little tidbit of information. Edward looked like he was having that same little conversation with her at the present. His lips were moving, but there was no sound coming out. I knew that they were having one of their private discussions. I could only hope that it was about the upcoming exam and not about our night together. I wasn't really ready for Alice to be that involved in our private lives.

I turned back around and started taking notes. The information was again straight forward. I took good notes and ignored my cell which was on vibrate. I knew that Thomas was texting me, and I chose to ignore him during class. I didn't feel like talking about Edward and me at this time, and I felt sure that the topic of the texts would involve just that. At the end of the first hour, we got a five minute break to stretch while the professor changed out the slide carousel in the media booth. I took the time to pull out my cell phone and look at the text messages. They were all from Thomas, just as I suspected. The first one said, "B, what exactly is going on with you and Edward?" The second one said, "Come on, B, talk to me," and the third one said, "You can't ignore me forever."

I turned to Thomas and said, "Thomas, this is something that I'm not comfortable discussing with you. Not here anyway. Please, respect my privacy."

He looked at me, and then he looked down like I'd slapped him in the face. I hadn't meant to hurt him, but I was having a hard enough time dealing with the fact that Edward was back in my life and the fact that I was so in love with him that I was having a hard time breathing, much less keeping my hands off of him. If Jasper would have been here, I know that he would have been all over the place with the emotions that I was giving off at the present time. I was ecstatic, hopeful, lustful, that was a huge one, worried, scared, fearful, sorrow, and also hurt. Add into that the nervousness at being in medical school, and I was one fucked up girl.

When the lecture resumed, I began taking notes again, trying to distract myself from both Edward and Thomas by paying attention to the professor. Out of my peripheral vision, I noticed that Thomas was making no effort to keep up. I reached over and patted him on the arm, trying to tell him that I wasn't mad at him. He looked up at me and grimaced. I smiled at him, and then I turned back to the lecture. When the lecture was over and the professor had left the room, a woman went down to the podium and asked for us all to stay for a few extra minutes. She introduced herself as Mary Adams and said that she was interested in running for class president. She had put a tentative schedule for the note taking service in our mailboxes on the day before. If we were interested in participating in the note taking service, we needed to get our fee to her by tomorrow afternoon at the latest. She already had someone to do the taping, and she would do the courier service for the first semester. The people on the list for the lectures yesterday and this morning needed to pick up their tapes and get the lectures transcribed since we have a test on Friday. If we were interested in running for class officer, we needed to contact her to put our names on a ballot. Elections would be Monday morning after Biochem if that was okay with everyone. She then opened the floor to anyone else having any announcements. There weren't any, so we all stood up to leave.

Thomas stood up and looked at me. He seemed to have something on his mind, but he was just standing there. I looked at him and said, "Okay Thomas, spill."

"Bella, are we still going to study together? Or are you going to study with …,"

I looked at Thomas. Then I turned and looked at Edward and Alice. I said, "I was hoping that we could all study together like we did last night. Thomas, I would never leave you stranded. You have been my study partner for the past three years. I don't intend to stop that now. If you give Edward and Alice a chance, I think that you'll see that they are very valuable study partners. Edward will have a very valuable grasp on the information, and Alice is very instinctive about what information is usually on tests. I've known them since high school, and they are very good people to have in a study group."

"Of course, Bella. What ever you want. Let's go to the library then. We need to claim a study room," Thomas said, glancing at Edward and Alice as he spoke.

"So, Bella, what exactly is that you are wearing? I foresee a shopping trip in your near future," Alice said as we walked down the corridor towards the library.

"No, Alice. I don't want to go shopping. I just got up late this morning and didn't have time to dress appropriately. I went for comfortably casual today."

"You didn't go for comfortably casual. You went for at home and depressed, eating a gallon of ice cream. From what Jazz said, you are definitely not putting off depressed."

"No, I'm not. Jazz always could read my moods so well, couldn't he," I said, glancing at Thomas. We walked the rest of the way in silence. We found an empty room and Thomas entered the room.

Edward put his hand on my shoulder and said, "Bella, Alice and I are going to hang out here for a little bit. You need to go and talk to Thomas. He has a lot of questions that he needs to ask you. You hurt his feelings earlier. We'll come back when things are better between the two of you."

"Edward, it's none of his business. I hope that you haven't told the whole family about everything. I don't even know what I'm feeling now. I'm not ready to discuss our lives with everyone, yet. We still have a lot of talking to do."

"I know, love. I know. We'll be right out here. I'll be able to hear you, so if you need me, just say so."

"Yeah, how would I explain that. My boyfriend has supersonic hearing. I'm sure that'll make him accept you so much sooner."

"I'll be here if you need me. In fact, I'll go in with you if you want me to. Alice too. We'll stand by you."

"Yes, Edward, I want you there. Alice, too."

"Okay, we'll come with you." He and Alice walked into the room with me. Thomas was sitting at the table with his books already out. He looked frustrated that we had talked outside before coming into the room.

Edward, Alice, and I took our seats. I looked at Thomas and said, "Okay, Thomas. I'm ready to answer your questions. You have been my closest friend for the past three years, and you've trusted me with your secrets and your heartaches. It isn't fair for me to be in the middle of my biggest heartache and to keep you locked out."

"Okay, Edward spent the night at your place last night?"

"Yes, he did."

"Did you sleep together?"

"Well, yes, I slept with him, but besides kissing, that's all that we did. We did not make love. We've never made love. Edward and I have never been together that way."

"You expect me to believe that the one man that you profess you undying love for, the one man that you can not live without, the only man that you've ever let into your heart, has never been with you sexually?"

"Yes, that's the truth. As a matter of fact, we've never even touched each other in a sexual manner. The only thing that we've ever done in all of our history together is kissed."

"Alice, Edward is your brother. You've known him all of your life. Do you believe that?"

"Yes, I do. Edward has very strong morals. His beliefs are those of someone who may as well have been born at the turn of the twentieth century. Edward is still a virgin," Alice said.

"Do you have to announce that to the whole world, Alice?" Edward asked, shaking his head. He got up from his seat and moved over to stand behind mine. He put his hands on my shoulders and leaned over to kiss my head. "Thomas, I love Bella with all of my heart, but I will not take advantage of her and her confusion. She is married to Jacob, and though I can't stand him, I will not let her break her marriage vows. I did kiss her, and for that I may burn in hell, but I will not advance my intentions towards her. I am not willing to let my friendship with her go now that I've found her again, and if she chooses to leave Jacob, I'll be right here waiting for her. I want to be a part of her life again. I do not want to take your place in her life, though. I have my own place in her heart, just as you have your own place in her heart. I hope that you can accept Alice and me into your life."

"Edward, I find it hard to believe that you don't have untoward intentions in regards to Bella. You have phenomenal good looks, and Bella is totally infatuated with you. You come into her life when she is physically separated from her husband. You left her telling her that she wasn't enough for you and your family, and now, you're back for one day, and you are all of a sudden spending the night at her place. It just all smells rotten to me."

"Thomas, Edward has always been the one to put on the brakes in our relationship. Even when we were in high school, I would have taken things farther many times if Edward hadn't stopped us. He truly has my best interest at heart. I'm not saying that I would have taken things farther last night, but I'm sure that if I would have tried, he would have stopped me. Edward has this very old fashioned idea that you should be married before you make love with someone. You could trust him with your sister."

"I don't know, Bella. There just seems to be something strange about him and Alice. I can't put my finger on it, but they just make me nervous," Thomas said. "No offense."  
"None taken," Alice said. "Now, let's get to work. This morning's lectures were pretty straight forward. Did either of you have a problem with any of the problems?"

"No, I thought they were fine," I said. "How about you, Thomas? I noticed that you weren't paying complete attention. Did you want us to go over any of the questions?"

"Yeah, I guess so. I wasn't listening very closely," Thomas said.

"Okay," Edward said, standing up at the dry erase board. Alice tossed him a dry erase marker, and he began going over all of the types of problems from this morning, making up new examples as he went. It wasn't long before Thomas was paying attention to Edward's explanations. It seemed that he forgot that he was questioning Edward's integrity only an hour ago. While Edward was making up problems, Alice seemed to become dazed for a little while, then she took out a piece of paper and started writing on it. She slipped me the piece of paper, and I looked at it. She had written several problems on it, about ten to twelve. I folded the piece of paper and put it into my backpack to put with the other paper that she had given me last night. I knew that she was having premonitions of our exam and was writing the exam questions down as she saw them. I also knew that we couldn't share these with Thomas. We would never be able to explain to him that Alice could see the future. All that we could do was to make sure that he could do a similar problem. At some point I wasn't sure how I felt about using Alice's premonitions to study by. After all, I knew that these problems wouldn't be examples to study by. I knew that they were the actual problems on the test. I knew that this was as good as cheating. I would have to think about this one.

"Wow Edward. Bella was right. You do seem to grasp the information quickly. What? Do you have a photographic memory or something?" Thomas asked after an hour and a half of studying.

"Or something," Edward laughed. "It is 11:30. We have an hour and a half until Anatomy. I know that Bella is going to have to go to get something to eat, so we really only have about 30 minutes left. What do you want to do now?"

"Bella, are you going to sign up for the note taking service?" Thomas asked.

"Edward? Alice? Do we need it?" I asked looking at them.

"No, love, you don't. We'll cover your backs," Edward said. "Between Alice and me, you'll have all of the information that you two will need to do well."

"Cocky son of a bitch, aren't you?" Thomas asked.

"No, just confident," Edward answered.

"Join us for lunch?" I asked Edward and Alice.

"Um, you know that we'd love to, but I think not," Alice said, turning up her nose at the thought. "I don't think that Edward and I will eat until tonight. We promised Carlisle and Esme that we'd go out with them later tonight."

"Oh, okay then. I guess that Thomas and I will go and try to beat the crowd. We'll meet you two in the lecture hall." I gathered my notebook and papers, and Thomas followed me out of the library. We made our way to the cafeteria and got our lunch. We quickly found a table and sat down. Most of the tables were taken up by students, some at every level of training. I was lost in thought when I heard a voice out of my past. I slowly turned to my right, and at the next table was a group of white coated students with their attending physician. They were going over patients while eating. The voice that I recognized belonged to the attending physician. I felt myself moving, not aware that I was doing so. I stood and walked over to the table. I stood there, just staring. Thomas made a move to stand, but just then, the attending looked up.

"Bella, is that you?" he said, standing up from the table. His students just looked shocked at his response.

"Carlisle! Oh my God! It is you!" I said, reaching up to hug his neck and give him a kiss on the cheek. "I've missed you so much! It's so good to see you! I never thought that I'd see you again!" The tears had started falling again.

He reached up and wiped the tears from my eyes. "Bella, daughter, I thought that we'd lost you forever. When Edward and Alice told me that you were in their class, I felt my world open up again. Esme is dying to see you. When will you come over? You know that you are a part of the family, now and hopefully forever, as soon as we can convince Edward, and assuming that you still want it."

"We discussed that last night. I'm ready now, but he still wants to wait. Carlisle, I can't wait to see you all again. Maybe this weekend? Maybe on Saturday? I'll have to ask Edward."

"No, you don't. Consider yourself invited. I'll let Esme know. And Emmett. I'll tell Rosalie to be on her best behavior. I know that you saw Jasper last night. We had a talk about your conversation. It was good of you to let him off of the hook about the accident. He has been blaming himself for everything for the past five years. None of us has been able to convince him that he wasn't at fault. You did a good thing last night, Bella."

"Well, Carlisle, it wasn't his fault. I was the careless one. If any fault was to lay, it should have been with me. Jasper was in no way to blame," I said.

"Yeah, that's what I tried to tell him for years, but he wouldn't listen to me," Carlisle said.

"Or me, for that matter," Alice said, walking up to us. "I see you found our Bella, Dad."

"No, actually, she found me," Carlisle admitted.

"And she's coming over Saturday for the day. How did you talk her into that?" Edward asked.

"Just a Dad's persuasion. I told her that Esme missed her. No one can say no to Esme," Carlisle said.

"Dad, we'd better go. We're going to be late for Anatomy," Edward said.

"Okay, you guys get going. Bella, it's been great seeing you again. Our house, on Saturday, right? Don't disappoint Esme. I love you daughter," Carlisle said.

I reached up and gave him another hug and a kiss on the cheek. If he could have blushed, he would have. He went back to his table and continued to go over patients with his students. We walked out of the cafeteria and towards the lower auditorium.

"I guess that was Edward and Alice's father," Thomas said.

"Yes, that was Dr. Carlisle Cullen. He's a second father to me. He's a great guy," I said.

"What did he mean a part of the family? What did you mean that you and Edward discussed it last night and that Edward still wanted to wait?" Thomas asked.

"Edward and I talked about marriage last night. That's all. Okay. Carlisle and the others have been ready for me to be a part of the family for years, but Edward is holding off. Even if I were to divorce Jacob, he would still want to wait."

We went into the lower auditorium. The four of us took our seats. I got my paper ready to take notes, and I looked up at Edward. He had some paper out as well. Our first lecture was concerning nerve types, specifically looking at receptor types. I did my best to take notes, but there were things that I knew that I was missing. The lecture was just too fast, and the slides were just too complicated to copy them in their entirety. At the end of the lecture, I reached up and pulled Edward's notes down to look at them. It was just as I remembered from high school. They were perfect. I looked up at him and grinned. He grinned back at me and leaned over and whispered, "I told you that I have you covered."

I whispered back to him, "Yeah, but what happens on sunny days?"

"I don't know, yet. We may just stay the night, or we may just skip. We haven't decided, yet. Regardless, you know that you can count on Alice."

"Yeah, about that. I don't know how comfortable I am with that."

"Why not? You will still be studying the information. You'll just be streamlining your studying. Trust me. You'll learn enough to be successful." I followed him to the anatomy lab. I stored my books in my locker and got my lab coat, lab manual, and dissection kit out of the locker. Alice came up to me with a lock for the locker.

"I knew that you'd need one, so when I picked up one for Edward and me, I got one for you, too," she said.

"Thanks, Alice. I appreciate it," I said while I memorized the combination. I walked into the lab and met my partners at my lab station. We opened the vat and pulled out our cadaver. We picked up the dissection where we left off the day before. When we got to the serratus posterior superior and the serratus posterior inferior, we had trouble identifying the blood supply. We reread the lab manual. We looked at the atlas. We searched again for the arteries that we were looking for. We just couldn't find them. I walked over to Edward's table and asked him to show me what he had, and he did. They were right there, where they were supposed to be. I asked Edward to come to our table and to see if he could find ours. He located the intercostal arteries almost at once. He showed us how they left the area between the ribs and traveled to the muscles. I thanked him, and he went back to his table. Eric was impressed with his knowledge.

"How do you know him?" Eric asked me.

"He was my boyfriend in high school. He has always been super smart," I told Eric as we started looking for the next set of muscles.

"His lab partner is so lucky. No offense, but it would be great to work with someone who knows so much," Eric said.

"No offense taken. His lab partner is Alice, his sister. She is a great person. She has been my best friend since we were juniors in high school.

"How old are they? They both look so young."

"Edward would be..." I quickly turned to look at Edward, and he walked over to our table.

He walked over to Eric and held out his hand. "Hi, I'm sorry. I didn't introduce myself a moment ago. I'm Edward Cullen. I'm a friend of Bella's from a while back. I heard you ask her how old I am. I get that question a lot. I guess that I look young. My sister and I are both twenty."

"How do you know so much about the dissection? I studied the lab manual, and I can tell that Bella has, too, but neither one of us could see where the arteries were," Eric asked Edward.

"Well, I guess that I'm a little bit more aggressive with the dissections. My dad is a surgeon, and I guess he has rubbed off on me," Edward said. "It is good to meet you, Eric."

"Yeah, good to meet you, too. Thanks for your help, Edward," Eric said. We managed to complete the assignment by the end of the class period. Eric left early, but Thomas and I stayed and Edward quizzed Alice and us on the lab information. We used his cadaver. When lab was over, we washed our equipment, and lowered our cadavers back into their vats.

We gathered at our lockers and decided to gather at my apartment. Edward and Alice told us that they would catch up with us in about an hour because they were meeting with Carlisle and Esme to eat. I told them that Thomas and I would eat a bite as well. When we got to my apartment, I made us some spaghetti and we ate. We sat down on the couch as we ate, and we talked about the day. I told Thomas that he had a good day. After all, Amanda and Grace hadn't caught up with him today. He laughed and said that it was a sad day when he measured whether a day was good or bad by whether a girl was chasing him or not. I laughed, too. I almost jumped out of my skin when my cell phone rang. I looked at the caller and saw that it was Jake.

I took a deep breath, and then I answered the phone. "Hi, Jake. How are things at the res?"

"Good, I guess. Seth thought that he picked up a leach odor the other day. He followed it, but it just played out. I don't know if it was just his wishful thinking, or if he was actually on the trail of something. None of the rest of us have caught a whiff, but it has been raining pretty steadily."

"Is that right? Where did Seth pick it up?"

"Over near the old Cullen house." There was a knock on the door, and I went to answer it, putting a finger to my mouth as Edward and Alice came inside.

"Jake, isn't that out of bounds? Doesn't that violate the treaty boundaries? Wasn't Seth on the wrong side of the treaty line to be that close to the house?" Edward's head turned to listen closely to our conversation.

"Bella, those leaches are long gone. They've been gone for over five years. As long as they aren't in possession of the house, we're going to patrol the entire area. We can't have any leaches in the area feel safe just because they think that we can't go into the Cullen's backyard because of the treaty. If they come back, then we'll put the treaty back in force, but until then, we'll patrol the entire area. If Seth was right and there was a leach in the area, we need to know who it was. If one of those leaches is back, then we need to know it so that we can put the treaty back into effect."

"Jake, what if one of you gets caught on the other side of the treaty line? What will happen if they catch you?"

"Do you know something? Are they back?"

"No, Jake. I don't know about any of them being back in Forks. Besides, the way that everything played out, I'm sure that I would be the last one they would tell that they're back. I'm just worried about one of the others coming back. I don't want anyone to get hurt, especially Seth."

"Well, I didn't mean to hurt you. How is school going?"

"It is hard. Biochem is okay for now, but Anatomy is hard as hell. Thomas is over and we're just about to start to study again. I've gotta go. Please tell Seth to be careful for me. Be careful. I'll talk to you later, Jake. Bye."  
"I'll tell him. Bye Bella." I hung up the phone and looked at Edward. He was trying to avoid my eyes.

"Did one of you go back to the house? Was it one of you, or was it someone else that I need to worry about?" I asked Edward in a low voice with my back to Thomas.

"It was Emmett. He went to the house to see how it was holding up. Esme wants to open it up for this weekend so we can go back there and have a nice, quiet time," Edward told me, also talking with his back to Thomas.

"Edward, I am married to one of the pack leaders. Don't you think that he will pick up my smell at your house? Don't you think that he will figure out that you are back if we go to the Cullen house? What is Esme thinking? I can't go back to Forks with you. Now that Seth has picked up on Emmett's trail, they will pick up the patrols around your house."

"I think that Carlisle is going to speak with Sam and tell him that they are back. I think that he is going to tell him that I haven't returned. That should protect you. If Carlisle forces them to keep to the treaty's boundary lines, and I don't run around and stick to the car, they should never know that I've been there. You should also be safe there. We can keep you under the dashboard while in Forks, and once you are within our boundary lines, you will be safe. You know that they can't break the boundary line without provoking an all out war. They don't want that."

Alice walked up to us and said, "This weekend will be fine. We'll go to the house, and Jake will not find out about it. I've seen it. We'll be just like we used to be."

"Who am I to fight Alice? Just make sure to call Carlisle," I said. I turned to Thomas who was patiently waiting for us to rejoin him. Edward went to the kitchen to call Carlisle. He returned in five minutes and joined me on the floor, taking me into his arms.

"I guess that no one is going to share that conversation with me. I can tell now. This arrangement is going to get on my nerves. I hate being the fourth wheel, in this case. I feel like you three would like it better if I weren't here at all. You could have your conversations without me interfering. I think that I'm going to go now," Thomas said.

"Thomas, no. Please don't go. I'm sorry that we were so rude. I apologize that we have been rude. There are just so many things going on that you wouldn't understand and that we really aren't at liberty to discuss with you," I said, taking his hand and holding it, preventing him from packing up his books.

"Try me! Bella, don't you trust me? We have always trusted each other. What is it about your life that has gotten so complicated that you can't trust me with it? Are you in some kind of trouble? Is there something about Edward's family that puts you in danger? Is his family in trouble with the law? Bella, trust me," Thomas said.

Edward looked at Alice who was appearing blank. "Okay, we'll trust you with out secrets," Edward said.

"No, Edward! What about the Volturi! You can't! They'll kill him! It's not worth it. Please Edward!" I begged.

"No, Bella. I've seen it. He will understand. He will keep the secret, and we'll be able to keep his knowledge from the Volturi. In fact, it isn't for certain, but he may change in the future."

"No! That's not fair. You can't! He isn't made for your world," I said.

"That's what I've been saying about you, love. It's taken being away from you for 5 years to change my mind," Edward said. "Thomas, are you sure that you want to know our tale? Once you know it, you can't go back. If you try to let our secret out, you will be hunted down and killed."

"Yeah, right. Some joke. Yeah, I'm sure," Thomas said.

"Thomas, they aren't joking. If anyone besides us finds out that you know our secret, then a group known as the Volturi will hunt you down, and they will kill you. Be sure that you want to know what is going on before they continue," I said.

"I'm sure. What are you involved in, Bella?"

"Well," I said leaning back into Edward's arms, "I guess that the place to start is to tell you that Edward and Alice, as well as the rest of their family are vampires."

"Okay, sure, jokes over. Ha, ha. Really funny. You all had me going. I'm leaving now," Thomas said.

"I'm telling the truth. Edward was born in 1901. He was changed by Carlisle in 1918 during the Spanish Flu epidemic in which his mother and father perished. He was 17 years old. He will never be older than 17 years old. Alice was changed in the early 1900's. She joined the Cullens several decades after she was changed. She is married to Jasper, the one who you met yesterday."

"You really expect me to believe this story?" Thomas asked.

"You really think that I look younger than 17? And yes, Alice is very happily married. She and Jasper have been together for about 40 years now....No, Jacob isn't a vampire, he is a werewolf, our sworn enemy... Yes, Bella knew that before she married him....Yes, he actually turns into a wolf....I don't know, I can't read Bella's mind. Hers is the only mind that I cannot read. Bella, Thomas wants to know if you and Jake have ever had sex when he was a dog?"

"Edward, first, no, I wouldn't ever do him when he is a wolf, and second, I asked you to not call him 'dog.'" I said.

"I didn't hear you telling him not to call us leaches." Edward said.

"Well, would you have had me say, 'Jake, Edward and Alice are standing here, and I wouldn't let them call you dog, so you can't call them leach?'"

"No, I guess not. Are you going to tell him that I'm back?" Edward asked.

"Isn't Carlisle going to tell him that you're not back? Why would I go against that?"

"You're serious? You two are really vampires? Why aren't you drinking our blood?" Thomas asked.

"We're vegetarians. We only drink from animals. That is harder for some of us than others. Jasper has a harder time than the rest of us. I know that you've heard us talk about the accident on Bella's birthday. She got a paper cut on her finger while opening her present. Jasper almost attacked her before we got him under control and out of the room. That is when I decided that it was too dangerous for her to be around my family. That was when I decided that I had to leave her for her own good." Edward said.

"It wasn't Jasper's fault. He hadn't hunted for several days, and I was careless. It was my fault. I don't blame Jasper. I love Jasper as a brother," I said. "This also explains why Edward can help us so much with school. This is his fourth time through medical school. This is Alice's first time through, but Alice can see the future. She has been seeing some of the questions on the test for Friday. She writes them down as she sees them."

"This is just a little too much for me to take in. How do you come out in the daytime?" Thomas asked.

"That is just a myth. We don't come out in the sunlight because of an effect that it has on our skin, but it doesn't burn us or anything. The only thing that hurts us is fire," Alice said.

"I'm sorry that I don't really believe you. I mean that mind reading is a good parlor trick, but I think that you're pulling a good one over on me. Can you prove it?" Thomas asked.

"Well, there are too many people around for us to really show out," Alice said.

"I thought so. Bella, I can't believe that they have you going along with them. I thought that you were my friend," Thomas said.

"Well, Bella, if you had a dog around, we could prove it for him," Edward said.

"Alice, I'm tired of him calling my boys dogs. Why don't you pull his arm off?" I said.

"Bella, I was just joking," Edward said, backing away from Alice who was advancing on him.

"Alice, what have I done to you lately? You don't have to do this, you know. Come on, Alice, please. You know it takes me days before I can play right," Edward said.

"Would you rather I take your leg?" Alice asked.

"EWWW, no, you'd have to put it back. No thank you," Edward said as Alice took hold of his right hand. "Alice, the left arm, please. I write with the right." Alice switched hands. She put a leg up against his abdomen and twisted his arm and pulled at the same time. Then she jumped back. With a loud ripping sound, Edward's left arm came away in Alice's hands. Alice walked up to Thomas and handed him Edward's arm.

Thomas took Edward's arm in his hands, holding it by his fingertips. Edward walked up to me and said, "Bella, would you please help me with my T-shirt so I can reattach my arm?"

"That is so a sentence that I'm no longer used to hearing," I said reaching over to him and taking his shirt to lift it over his head. I kissed him then I went over to Thomas and said, "Would you please give me Edward's arm. He would like to have it back now." Thomas held it out like it had leprosy. I took it into my hands and held it to Edward's shoulder. Alice came over to make sure that I was holding it right. She made a small adjustment, and slowly, it began to reattach itself. Within thirty minutes, it was firmly in place. He took me in his arms and held me close to him. He kissed me again, and this time, I kissed him back, not holding back and showing him exactly how much I loved him.

"Well, I guess that was evidence. It is going to take time to wrap my mind around this. I swear that I will never tell your secret. Who would believe me if I did tell?" Thomas asked.

"The Volturi. They would kill you first, ask questions later," I said, looking at him, my face serious. "We're not kidding about them. Now how about some studying?"

We studied for the rest of the evening. We payed particular attention to the problems that Alice had seen in her visions, making sure that we could all work them. Then we turned our attention to the anatomy lesson that we'd had today. It wasn't in the textbook, so Edward made sure that we could regurgitate the important facts before we left for the night. Tomorrow was Wednesday, so we didn't have anatomy. It would be a full day of Biochem.

Thomas and Alice left about ten o'clock. Edward and I went to get ready for bed. We got into bed, and I snuggled into his chest. We kissed each other good night, and he again hummed my lullaby to put me to sleep. I again slept soundly, snuggled up to the man that I loved.


	5. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer: Stephenie Meyer owns it all, except Thomas. He's mine.**

**Chapter 5: The First Week**

Again, I slept well, and again I woke up to kisses along my jaw and my neck. I turned into the kisses and met his mouth, mine opened and willing to take the tongue that he offered. He pulled me closer to him, and I could feel his body pressing into mine. I wanted to touch him so badly, but I knew from our history that it was out of the question. Instead, I wrapped my fingers in his hair, pulling his mouth closer to mine, not intending to let his go. He snaked his hand up my back to do the same with me, holding me against him.

When we finally broke for air, he said, "Bella, we've got to get up and get ready for class. I brought over a change of clothes, so while you shower, I'll go and prepare breakfast for you, and while you are eating, I'll take a shower and get ready."

"Is there any reason that we can't shower together?" I teased.

"You know there are many reasons why we can't shower together, love. Now go get ready." I got up from the bed and trudged into the bathroom. I undressed, hoping that he would join me despite his comments to the contrary, but Edward was Edward, and he didn't. I did have a nice breakfast waiting for me when I came out of the bedroom fully dressed for class. Edward pulled out the chair for me, then he went into the bedroom to get ready. He was back by the time that I'd finished breakfast and was washing the dishes.

He came up behind me and started kissing me on the neck. "You know, it is awful for me to go so many hours without kissing you or taking you in my arms," he said. "Now that I've found you again, I never want you to leave my arms."

"I know. I just don't think that us hanging all over one another is the best way to go. I don't think that everyone needs to know about our past. I'm still worried about Thomas. I still don't agree with telling him about you. I'm worried about how he will take it. I so don't want him to give your secret away, and I really don't want him to end up as a meal for the Volturi!"

"I saw Alice's visions. Everything will work out. He will accept us, and he will keep his mouth shut. It will help with his jealousy of you and me being together."

"Jealousy? What do you mean?"

"Bella, he is in love with you. Didn't you know that? He has been madly in love with you for the past two years. He thought that you were in love with Jacob, so he has kept it to himself. He even made up some fact about loving his step-sister to explain why he isn't dating. It's plain on his face when he looks at you."

"You've got to be kidding. Thomas doesn't love me. That's crazy."

"Bella, I've been reading his mind since the first day. Trust me, he's totally in love with you. When he saw you faint in lab, he almost went out of his mind. Then when he saw me catch you, he was yelling in his mind that someone else was touching you. He knew that he couldn't make a scene, so he let me hold you. When you woke up and knew me, and you touched my face, he almost yelled for me to get my hands off of you. Then when you knew Alice, he almost broke down and cried. I think that he thought that he was losing you. When you chose to say good-bye to Alice and me, he felt like he had won a victory of some sort. Then when we showed up at your apartment to study, he wanted to grab you and pull you into his lap. When you told Alice to go get Jasper, and you had your talk outside with him, he was going over ways to get us out of your life. Then when Jasper came in, and you know how handsome he is, he almost crumpled. When he realized that Jasper is with Alice, he let out a sigh of relief. Then when you basically sat in my lap to study, he almost cried."

"Edward, I'm going to hurt every man in my life because you're back, aren't I?"

"I'm afraid so, love. You know that eventually Jacob is going to find out about us. I just hope that Thomas isn't the one to tell him. I know that you trust Thomas, but he was having thoughts last night about calling Jacob and telling him that I'm back. He thinks that if Jacob finds out that I'm back, it will somehow violate the treaty that you were talking to him about on the phone. You had that conversation in front of Thomas. Now that Thomas knows that we are vampires and that Jacob is a wolf, he thinks that, or he was thinking last night that, if Jacob finds out that I'm back, it will somehow be a violation of the treaty. We will fight each other leaving you available so that he can move in on you. Look, we're going to be late again. Ride with me. Alice is taking her Porsche today. That way we can continue to talk." I gathered my books and followed Edward to his new silver Volvo. He held my door so that I could get in. Then he drove us to the school parking garage.

"Edward, we have to convince him that it would be a bad idea for him to get into the middle of this situation. He could get hurt, bad. He won't heal like you or the wolves will."

"Bella, don't you think that I know that. You have to make it clear to him that you don't love him. No matter what he does, it won't win his love. Hopefully, that will keep him quiet. Maybe you can go home for a weekend and take him with you. Let him see Jacob phase."

"I don't want to go back. That would mean that I had to spend the weekend away from you. I'm not willing to do that." By this time, we had reached the lower auditorium. He held the door open for me, and I followed him to our seats. Alice had already taken her seat, and she had started a silent conversation with Edward who nodded his head. I really hated it when they did that. I really felt left out. I looked to my side at Thomas's seat. He still wasn't here, yet. I turned to Alice and said, "What did you see?"

She looked at Edward, and then she looked back to me. She whispered, "Thomas isn't coming this morning. He spent last night walking the floor in his apartment, thinking about what we told him. He doesn't know what he wants to believe. He thinks that he imagined the incident with Edward's arm. He also thinks that we sneaked something into his drink last night to make him hallucinate, and he is thinking about going to the ER to have his urine tested for drugs. He is furious at you for going along with us in this farce. He is thinking about going to Jake and telling him that you and Edward are sleeping together."

"He can't do that! I thought that you saw him accepting everything. That's why we told him. What changed?" I asked.

"He found out that Edward can read minds. He knows now that Edward knows that he loves you and that he's probably told you by now. He figures that if you know how he feels, and if he still can't have you, then Edward can't have you either. He is bound and determined that if he can't have you, no one will," Alice said just as the professor called the class to order. I turned back around in my seat. That made sense in a warped sort of way. As long as I was unaware of his feelings for me, he could let this scenario play out, but now that Edward, and by default, I knew of his feelings, he had nothing to lose by exposing the truth to Jacob. He would come out smelling like a rose, a rose that had been packed in a barrel of rotten fish, yet a rose still.

I decided that now was not the time to worry about it. I would need to pay attention to the lecture. We had a test in two days, and this material would be covered on the test. I pulled out my paper and began taking notes. This morning's material was a little harder than that of the first two days. I had a little bit of trouble keeping up with one of the examples that he covered. I let it pass because I knew that Edward would be able to explain it to me during our study session. The rest of the lecture went fine.

When the session was over, I packed my bookbag, and we went to the top of the auditorium to go to the library. When I opened the door, Thomas was standing against the far wall, waiting for us. I walked up to him and gave him a hug. "I missed you," I said. "Where were you this morning?"

"Didn't your friends tell you that I wasn't coming?" he said, not even trying to hide the bitterness in his voice.

"Yes, but I was hoping that she was wrong," I said. "I thought that I knew you better than she did. I've never known you to skip a class unless you were sick, especially with an exam coming up."

"I didn't get much sleep last night, like none. I'm still having a hard time wrapping my mind around what we talked about. It just doesn't seem possible. My world as I know it has been turned upside down, and I'm having a hard time adjusting, and there's no one that I can talk to about it."

"That's not true. I've been there. You can talk to me about it. Come on, let's get to our study room. We have a lot to go over to catch you up on today's lectures. Edward and Alice have gone ahead to save it for us."

"Yeah, about them. I'm not so sure that I'm comfortable around them. Can't we go, just the two of us and study?"

"No, Thomas. I can't do that. I can't stand to lose them from my life again. I've just found them again, and I won't let them go, ever. I need for you to understand. They aren't just my friends; they are my family. The love that I have for them and their family is boundless. When the day is right, I will be joining them for an eternity."

"So you will be leaving me. Some day, you will just vanish, gone, kaput. Just like that. No more Bella?"

"You will hear of my death. There will likely be a funeral for my family, but yes, I'll disappear one day."

"Bella, you are not making this very easy for me. I don't want to lose you. I've only been a part of your life for the past 3 years, but I've come to depend on your presence in my life. I always thought that we'd open a practice together. I thought that we'd grow old together. This is so wrong on so many levels. I just want to scream and wake up and start this over, just you and me. Maybe apply to another school so that we'd be without them."

"Thomas, it was meant to be. The only thing that we could have done differently was to withhold the information that we gave you last night. I wanted to keep you in the dark, but Edward and Alice felt like they could trust you. They said that if you were as good a friend to me as I said that you were, that you could handle our secret. Don't make them regret that I trust you, please. Now, let's go study, okay."

"Bella, please...,"

"No, you have a choice now, Thomas. You can either be with us, or you can leave us. I am going to the library to study. There was a problem type that I didn't understand. I need Edward to explain it to me. We are wasting time now. Are you coming or not?" I asked as I turned to walk down the hallway to the library. At first, Thomas stood his ground, just looking at me walk away. Then, slowly, he began to follow me. I breathed a sigh of relief.

I waited at the door to the library for Thomas to catch up with me. We walked into the study room together. Alice and Edward looked at me, and I smiled. We sat down in our seats, and I took out my notes. I looked at Edward, and he stood up. "We missed you this morning, Thomas. I hope that you are feeling well. Dr. Elliot went over several problem types this morning. Would you like me to walk you through them?"

"Yeah, I suppose so," Thomas said, not looking Edward in the eye. He watched as Edward explained the problems, writing down the examples. He asked a few questions, and Edward made up some more problems to use as examples. Thomas never said, "Thank you," or "Go to Hell," or "Bite me," or anything else.

When Edward got to the problem type that I had trouble understanding, he put another problem on the dry erase board and told me to get up and work it. I got up and stood in front of the board. Edward stood behind me and wrapped his arms around my waist. I looked up into his eyes, and he reached down and gave me a kiss on the forehead. I looked back at the problem and said, "Edward, you are being a bad boy. You're distracting me." He leaned down and started kissing my neck. "Edward, honey, not here. Someone might see you."

"But Bella, I love you. Your blood calls to me. The burn is so good. I never thought that I'd ever burn for you again," he said as he took a deep breath.

"Edward, the problem. Remember. What do I do next?" I asked him pulling away.

"Kiss me, Bella. Let me taste you."

I turned in his grip and threw my arms around his neck. I reached up and kissed him, letting his tongue enter my mouth, so that it could dance with my tongue. I flung myself into his arms and held him as tightly as I could, ignoring the look that I was getting from Thomas. I only broke away when I had to breathe. He stood me up, and I gazed into his eyes. They were darker than normal.  
"You need to hunt. I thought that you were going with Carlisle and Esme last night."

"Carlisle had a late surgery, and I didn't want to be away from you for so long. We've been going into Canada. Emmett has been enjoying the grizzlies."

"Um, guys, the problem," Alice said, pointing to the dry erase board.

I turned back to the board, and all of a sudden, I could clearly see the way to work the problem. I worked it, and looked up at Edward for confirmation. He nodded, and then he erased that problem and put another in its place. I worked it, and again, I got it right. He leaned over and kissed me on top of the head. I turned and gave him a kiss on the lips. It was chaste compared to the other kiss, but it was still filled with passion. I went over to take my seat. Edward spent the rest of the time going over question types for Thomas. Alice handed him a list of questions which he put on the board. We each copied the questions and Edward went over each one of them so that we would understand the mechanics of each.

By the time that Thomas and I needed to leave for lunch, Alice was in another vision. It took several minutes to complete, and Thomas was looking at her like she had grown two heads, but when it was over, she only said one word, "Baseball."

"When?" I asked.

Edward answered, having seen her vision, "This afternoon, after biochem. It won't take the entire 4 hours. As a matter of fact, our group will finish in an hour and a half. We need to go and tell Carlisle. He will be able to get off. He will let the others know. Thomas, Alice sees that you will join us, however, I would like to extend to you the invitation."

I shook my head and said, "Alice, can you promise that there will be no James's?"

"Yes, Bella. I swear it. No rogue vampires. I watched the whole game this time," Alice said.

"Great, that means that you and Edward know who wins. What fun is that?" I asked, laughing.

"Love, the fun is in the playing, and in seeing Rosalie being called out at home, again," Edward said with a huge grin on his face. "You'll be umpiring again, love. You and Thomas, of course. Rose will be fit to be tied, literally. Emmett will have to threaten to tie her up, and Carlisle will have to talk to her. It'll be great!"

"Um, I don't know if I'll be able to make it," Thomas said.

"Of course you'll make it," I told him. "It is a blast watching these guys play. We can't play; we'd never be able to keep up, but it is great fun to watch them compete with each other. Please, Thomas, please."

"Oh, all right. I'll go. Now that I know the secret, I'd like to see what these guys are made of."

"That's the spirit. Let's go see if we can find Carlisle in the cafeteria," I said. We gathered our papers and headed out. When we arrived, we got into line and got lunch. When we walked into the lunch room and found Edward and Alice, we noticed that Carlisle hadn't arrived, yet. We ate our lunch and Thomas asked what was so special about this afternoon and baseball.

"There will be a thunderstorm," Alice said as if this made complete sense.

Thomas looked at her as if she had swallowed a fly. "And what does a thunderstorm have to do with playing baseball? We usually make it a point to not play baseball when it rains." Just then, Carlisle walked in with his students.

He paused at our table and Alice said, "Baseball, 3:45. Thomas will be joining us."

Carlisle looked at each of us ending with Thomas. He said, "Thomas, it is nice to meet you. Any friend of Bella's is a friend of ours. We'd be honored to have you at our home. I guess that the two of you want me to inform Rosalie of our guest." Edward and Alice both imperceptibly nodded. "Ah, yes, I presumed so. Alright, but you both owe me one. I presume that there will not be a repeat of the last time that Bella joined us for a game. You've looked to the ending this time, Alice?" Alice nodded again. "Okay, I'll meet you at the house at 3:45. These guys will find themselves lucky to be getting out early. Send Jasper home early to hunt."

"Okay, Carlisle. I'll call him now. We're going to be getting out of class about 2:30, so we'll be getting there right at 3:45," Alice said. Carlisle nodded and went to join his students. Alice picked up her phone and dialed a number. She spoke so quickly that I couldn't understand her. She hung up within a minute and turned back to us. "Jazz is on his way. He said that he would grab Emmett and head up to Canada for an hour or so. He promised that they would be back by 3:45. They'll meet us at the house."

"Wait, if we get out of class at 2:30, how will we get to Forks by 3:45? It is 4 hour drive," Thomas said."

"Trust them. We'll make it. Who is driving?" I asked.

"I will," Edward said. "Come on, we're going to be late for class."

We put up our trays and made our way to the classroom. We took our seats and waited for the lecture to start. Dr. Elliot finally called class to order. He explained that our Wednesday afternoon classes would be practical applications of what we were learning in biochem. We were to break into groups of 5 students. He was passing out the assignments, and we were to each take one. We were to work in our groups to complete the problems. We could go anywhere we wanted to go to complete the assignment. We were to turn in only one copy of the assignment, and we would all receive the same grade on the assignment. It was due by the end of the assigned period.

As soon as he was finished with the instructions, Alice stood and began walking across the room. Immediately, Amanda and Grace walked up to Thomas and asked if they could be in his group. I turned to Thomas to see what he would say when Alice walked up to us with a tall, brown headed, blue eyed man in tow. She said, "Sorry girls, but our group is full. William, I would like to introduce you to our other group members. This is Thomas Gates, Bella Swan, no I'm sorry, Bella Black, I keep forgetting your married name, and Edward Cullen. Everyone, this is William Wads. Trust me, we want him in our group."

I looked at him and said, "Nice to meet you William. Okay, our group is complete. Let's go."

He looked at me and said, "Where to?"

"To the library. We have a study room that we like to use. It is nice and quiet, and it has a dry erase board that we can use to do the problems on," Thomas said. We led the way back to the library and to our study room. Thankfully, it was empty. We all took our seats, and Edward took out his paper and the dry erase marker.

"Who is going to do the paper to turn in?" Edward asked.

"I will. My handwriting isn't all that bad," William spoke up.

"Okay, then. Let's get this started. Number 1." Edward wrote the problem on the board. He had us take turns working the problems. If one of us couldn't do it, he skipped us. If all of us had a problem, he worked it for us, then went back and explained it. Then he made up 2 or 3 more just like it until we could all work the type with ease. William fit in with us very well. He was very bright, and he caught on with our study style almost immediately. He was a good pick. I knew never to question Alice.

Just like Alice predicted, we finished right at 2:30. We packed our bags and made each of us copies of the worked problems to keep to study for the test. We made our way back to the classroom. Before we went inside, we asked William if he would like to join our study group on a permanent basis. We told him that we studied between biochem and anatomy everyday and after anatomy most nights. We begged off tonight because of a prior engagement. He graciously accepted. We told him that we would see him in the morning, and then we entered the classroom where several groups were still trying to work the problems. We went to the front of the classroom and turned in the problems. Dr. Elliot was shocked to say the least that we were finished. He asked us if we needed more time to go over our answers, but we told him that we were satisfied with our work. He dismissed us for the day.

We went out and all crowed into Edward's Volvo. He and Alice sat up front, and Thomas and I sat in the backseat. Thomas asked me if I was sure that I didn't want to sit up front with Edward, and I said that I was very sure. I had ridden up front plenty of times, and I was very comfortable in the backseat. I made sure that Thomas had his seatbelt on. During the trip, I tried to talk to Thomas about anything to keep his mind off of how fast we were going. I stole a glance at the speedometer once, and I felt my heart leave my body with my stomach following close behind it. We were only going 158 mph.

As we came into Forks, I ducked down below the level of the windows. When I sensed us turning onto the familiar driveway, I sat back up, anxious to see the house that I so long ago felt was my second home. As we turned the curve leading to the house, a "breath Bella" came from the front seat, and I realized that I had been holding my breath. There it was, the house. He pulled to a stop in his place in the garage, and he opened the doors to let us out. When I got out, I walked over and took his hand in mine. All of a sudden, I heard a loud crash from the back of the house. Thomas almost jumped out of his skin. I led Edward around back, and Thomas followed us.

There, in the backyard, Emmett and Jasper were play fighting. Emmett had just thrown Jasper into a tree. The tree had snapped in two. Jasper got up and ran at Emmett, picking him up and throwing him into another tree, snapping it as well. I could hear Thomas's gasp as he witnessed Emmett bouncing through a tree, and the tree splitting. Then I could hear Rosalie in the background laughing. "That's what you get when you insult his Southern Heritage, Monkey Man!" Jasper had run after Emmett this time, catching him mid-leap. They bounced off one another causing another crashing sound.

"What did he say this time," Edward asked, laughing.

"Em said that Robert E. Lee deserved to have a Yankee graveyard on his property," Rosalie said.

"Oh, no. This one will go on forever. If we're going to play baseball, someone is going to have to break them up," Alice said. "Edward, it's your turn."

"Nope, I'm not getting between Jazz and his generals. This one is all up to you, little pixie," Edward said.

"I'll go," I said.

"Um, Bella, they'll have you for lunch," Alice said.

"No, let the human have a go for it. I'd like to see this," Rosalie said.

I walked out into the backyard. "Jasper, Emmett! Hello, can you hear me? Emmett! I've missed you!" I walked to where I was in Emmett's direct line of sight.

"Bella? Is that really you? Hold on Jazz! It's Bella!" Emmett yelled. He ran up to me and grabbed me into his arms, twirling me around. "Oh my God! I thought that we'd lost you forever. My stupid brother made us leave. I've missed you so much! I can't believe that you're back! You are back to stay, aren't you. You're never going to leave us again, are you?"

"Emmett, can't breath," I managed to squeak out. He immediately loosened his grip on me. He put me down on the ground. "Emmett, you need to apologize to Jasper. You know that Robert E. Lee definitely did not deserve to have a Yankee graveyard on his property. Apologize now or I won't talk to you the rest of the night."

"Jazz, I'm sorry that I said that Robert E. Lee deserved to have a Yankee graveyard on his land. I know how you feel about your generals, but I just wanted to wrestle with you. I've missed our fights since you've been living with Alice and Edward. Do you forgive me?"

"Sure, Emmett. You could have just said that you wanted to wrestle. I've missed it too. You know that Edward is too much of a tight ass to fight."

"I can't believe this. Emmett, you would apologize for the human, but you never apologize for me. You are so going to pay," Rose said.

"Come on Rosie. I haven't seen Bella for over 5 years. I've missed her. Admit it. You missed her, too. You know you did," Emmett said.

"If I missed her, it was only because with her around, Edward wasn't so much of a dick," Rosalie said.

"Rosalie, I thought you said that you would be on your best behavior tonight," Carlisle said, coming out of the door with Esme on his arm.

Esme walked up to me. She pulled me into her arms, and I returned the embrace. "Oh, Bella. I've missed you so much. I felt like one of my children was missing, like part of my heart was ripped out. Welcome back, daughter. Please don't ever leave again."

"Esme, I love you, too. I promise, I won't ever leave you again, even if I wasn't the one to leave before. I want to always be a part of your family, and as soon as Edward will let me, I'll join you, for eternity." As soon as I said that, Rosalie yelled and stomped off into the woods. Emmett looked at me with a smile on his face, then he shrugged and took off after her. I watched them go, and then I said, "She is never going to accept me, is she?"

Carlisle said, "You willingly accept what she so loathingly can't give back. I don't know if she will ever accept you, Bella. Regardless, you are a part of this family, and you will be forever, when our Edward will finally decide to change you. Rosalie can either decide to accept that, or she can move on. Now, Thomas, let me introduce you to my wife, Esme. Esme, this is Thomas, a good friend of Bella's. You know Jasper already. I will introduce you to Emmett at least at the ball field. Rosalie won't care one way or the other. If everyone is ready, then let's head out."

"Thomas, I'll carry you, if that is okay with you," Alice said.

"What do you mean, carry me?" Thomas asked. "Where is this ball field?"

"It is deep in the forest, about 30 miles in," Alice said. "Just watch Bella get on Edward's back. Get on mine like she does on Edward's."

"You've got to be kidding. I weigh way too much for you to carry me," Thomas argued.

"Thomas, just get on. And don't look. I get sick to my stomach if I look. Just bury your head in her shoulder," I said. I watched as Thomas climbed onto Alice's back. He looked humiliated. "If you'd rather, I'm sure that Jasper would be willing to carry you."

"No, this is okay. Let's just get going," Thomas said. Edward and Alice took off into the forest, jumping the creek, and following Carlisle and Esme. I hid my face in his back as usual. In ten minutes, I felt him slowing down. When he came to a stop, I climbed down off of his back and looked around for Alice and Thomas. She was setting him down a few feet to my left. He looked a little bit dizzy. I walked over to him and put a hand on his shoulder.

"You looked, didn't you?" I asked.

"Yeah. That was intense. How fast were we going?" Thomas asked.

"I've seen Emmett going as fast as my old truck, about 45 mph," I said. "He's relatively slow. Edward is the fastest." Thomas shook his head and stared at Edward. "I know. It takes a while to get used to it."

"Come on, everyone. Front and center. Let's get the teams together. Rosalie and Emmett, are you two going to play, or you two going to talk forever? Good, come on then, we're waiting," Carlisle said.

"What, I didn't hear them say anything," Thomas said.

"Supersonic hearing," I said. "It drives me crazy. They can hear every word that is said in the house, even if it is whispered. There is no privacy whatsoever in the house."

"Even behind closed doors?" he asked. "So you and Edward didn't have any privacy at all?"

"Nope. Everyone in the house heard every word and every kiss. Sometimes, they would all go out to give us some privacy, but that was few and far between."

"Come on now little sister, you know that Eddie wasn't going to do anything anyway. There really wasn't any reason to give the two of you any more privacy. Besides, Eddie not only heard us, but watched everything the rest of us did for the past 70 years. Payback is hell, little sister," Emmett said, walking up to me and patting me on the back.

"Thomas, let me introduce you to my big brother, Emmett McCarty Cullen. Emmett, this is my good friend, Thomas Gates. He goes to school with us. He is one of our study partners."

"Good to meet ya, Thomas. Any friend of Bella's is a friend of ours. Well, except that dog that she hangs out with every now and again. We could all do without him," Emmet said reaching out to shake Thomas's hand.

"Emmett, please don't call him a dog. I've already had this discussion with Edward. Those boys are my family just like you guys are my family," I said.

"You know that you're going to have to chose sides, little sister. You can't ride the fence on this one. Carlisle called Sam and told him that we're back, and they're skirting the line mighty close. I don't know what they're trying to find out, but they're pushing their luck. One step over, and I'm going to rip their heads off. You might want to tell Jacob to pull them back a little."

"Emmett, please don't hurt them. I can tell you that they're probably looking for signs of Edward being back. Carlisle said that he was going to tell them that he isn't with you. I care a lot for some of those boys, especially Seth. He is like a little brother to me. Please, cut them a little slack. When they realize that Edward isn't here, they'll back off. Besides, like I've been telling them for 5 years, James is dead. What do you have to patrol for?"

"Who is this James? I've heard you mention his name several times in association with playing baseball." Thomas said.

"Long story, and one that shouldn't worry you," I said.

"Like hell. He almost killed you, Bella. If it wasn't for Edward being so fast and sucking out the venom, you'd be one of us already, not that I'd be complaining you understand. I don't know why he didn't let the venom take you. He sure is one stubborn SOB isn't he?"  
"What? You've been bitten? How did that happen?" Thomas asked.

"Well, we were playing baseball, and the noise attracted some rogue vamps. They were not vegetarians. When they came up on us, they smelled our Bella, here, and James went for her. We tried to hide her, but he tricked her into coming to him. He broke her leg, and then he bit her. Edward was able to save her life by sucking out the venom and cleaning her blood," Emmett said.

"Okay, enough horror stories, Let's play," Edward said as he came over and gave me a kiss. "Are you two up to umpiring?"

"Ready and waiting," I said. I turned to Thomas and said, "They only get one pitch. They have to hit it or they're out." We moved to home plate.

"Where is first base?" Thomas asked. I pointed way out to our right. "Way out there?" I nodded. He just shook his head. Rosalie was first to bat. She stared at us, and I just stared back at her.

"Good afternoon, Rosalie. I hope that you are having a nice day," I said. She just glared at me. I shrugged my shoulders. Alice pitched, and Rosalie hit the ball. Just as I remembered from the last time I witnessed their baseball game, the sound was like thunder. She took off around the bases. Emmett leaped into the air and caught the ball.

"Oh My God! Did you see that? He caught that ball. Wait, nobody is wearing gloves," Thomas said.

Carlisle was next to bat. He hit the ball deep into the outfield. Edward raced back to field the ball. Esme caught the thrown ball and tagged Carlisle out as he slid into home. "Out!" I yelled. Carlisle jumped up as if to argue the call. Instead he came up and hugged me.

"It's so good to have you back with us, Bella," Carlisle said. "Even if you don't know the first thing about baseball."

Jasper was up next. He hit the ball short. Edward and Emmett were too far out and had to race in to field the ball. Jasper raced around the bases. He managed to score the run before Edward and Emmett could get their acts together enough to stop fighting over the ball. I burst out laughing and hugged Jasper as he came across home plate. Thomas just stared at him with his mouth hanging open. Rosalie came up to bat again. This time, she hit the ball deep, it going into the woods. Edward took off after it. Rose started running the bases. When she was between second and third, she stopped running, and the teams started trading sides. Thomas asked, "Wait. What just happened?"

I said, "Edward caught the ball."

"How do you know?"

"They heard him catch it."

"You're kidding, right?"

"Nope. I told you, they have supersonic hearing. They can hear if it hits his skin or if it bounces on the ground. Didn't you see? They all started changing sides at the same time. Here comes Edward."

"Where? Oh My God! Is that him running? That's not possible. I almost can't follow him," Thomas said in awe. Edward came to a stop in front of us. He gave me a kiss and grabbed a bat. Rosalie was pitching. He hit the ball deep into the outfield. Carlisle took off, trying to catch the ball, but it hit the ground just over his head. Edward was able to round the bases before Carlisle was able to get the ball into Esme.

"Safe," I called out. Edward picked me up and kissed me again. The game was tied, 1-1. Next to bat was Alice. She hit the ball straight to Jasper who caught it with ease. Emmett then hit the ball into the woods. He scored easily. The score was now 2-1. The game went back and forth for three more innings. The final score was 8-4, Edward's team over Carlisle's team.

Edward came up to me and picked me up. He kissed me passionately, and I wrapped my legs around his hips. Carlisle came up to the two of us and said, "You two look good together. I've missed having the two of you around. Bella, you're good for Edward. I haven't seen him smile in over five years. Unfortunately, you need to make a decision. Emmett is right. You can't ride this fence sweetheart. Sam was pretty insistent about finding out about Edward's whereabouts. I don't think that they're going to believe that he's not back. They are pushing the border, trying to make us jump. Emmett is getting anxious."

"I know, Carlisle. You know that I choose Edward and your family. I'm just not ready for that confrontation. Edward is my soulmate. No matter what our history, if he'll have me, I'm his forever. You just have to promise me that you'll never let him leave me again. If he does, promise me that you'll change me immediately, so that I can go after him myself."

"I promise, my daughter. I'm ready to change you right now. I think that you'd be surprised how well you'll do. I know that you want Edward to change you, but I think that he is afraid that he won't be able to stop," Carlisle said.

"No, Carlisle. After I sucked out the venom and stopped drinking from her, I"m sure that I can change her. I won't drain her. I won't fall off the wagon so to speak. I just want her to finish medical school first," Edward said.

"And then you'll want her to finish residency, and then you'll want her to set up practice. She is already as old as I am. How old do you want her to get, Edward. Remember, you want her to be able to pass as your age as well. She won't ever be able to establish a practice," Carlisle said.

"Why not, Carlisle? You do," Edward stated, looking at Carlisle.

"Bella, what do you want to do for eternity? Do you want to be a doctor or do you want to join the other kids?" Carlisle asked me.

"Oh, gosh. You know, I haven't given that any thought at all. An eternity of high school and college or going to work with you every day?" I said. "Boy what a choice. I know that I want to spend all of eternity with Edward, and he is eternally 17. I'm already 22. Would I even pass for a sophomore again?"

"Bella, what are you talking about? For the past three years, all that you've talked about is becoming a doctor. Now you're thinking about giving that up? To do what? Go back to high school? Is that what I'm understanding you to say? What, you people go back to high school? What do you mean?" Thomas asked.

"Yeah, it sucks, doesn't it," Jasper said. "When it is time for us to move on, we 'kids' start out in high school. It means that we can stay in one place longer. We all graduate, and then we can move on to college or whatever. I guess Bella is old enough that if she finishes with med school before she is changed, she could work with you Carlisle."

"I don't know if that is what I want, though. Not that I would mind going to work with you, Carlisle. Don't get me wrong. I want to spend eternity with Edward, and Edward can't pass as a doctor. I know that this is his 4th time through med school, but that isn't what he can do forever. Edward, you haven't ever done a residency, have you?"

"No, I'm too young to pass it off," he said, looking down. "But, Bella, I don't want to take your dream away from you. You can finish and work with Carlisle. In fact, by the time you finish, you will be older than Carlisle was when he was changed. You will be able to work without anyone questioning you."

"Edward, that isn't what I want. I want to go with you and Alice and Jasper and Emmett and Rose. I want it to be the six of us, like it was at Forks High, only this time, I want to be one of you. I can do the high school thing, and if we get tired of it, I can do the college thing every once in a while. You've got to understand. My life is with you. It isn't with Carlisle, no offense Carlisle."

"None taken. You know, Esme lets me go to work. In sixty or seventy years you might not want to go to high school. You might want some time away from Edward," Carlisle said.

"I seriously doubt it. I'm broken without him, Carlisle. I need him to exist," I said. "Anyway, this isn't the time or the place to discuss this. Edward and I need to talk about it and to come to a decision about it. We need to get back to Seattle." I walked up to Emmett. I reached up to him and gave him a big bear hug. "Bye for now, my Emmie bear. I love you." I walked up to Rosalie. "Bye Rosalie. I know that you don't approve of my decision to join this family, but I want you to know that I love your brother and the rest of your family. I even care about you. Take care of Emmett for me." I walked up to Esme. "Esme, I love you dearly. You are the mom that every kid wishes she had. I hope that you become my real mom really soon. Take care of yourself." I then walked over to Jasper and hugged him. "You know that you are welcomed at my apartment any time, right? Don't be a stranger. Now, Alice, are you riding back with us or with Jasper?"

"I'm riding back with Jasper. We'll lead, then you guys, then Carlisle," Alice said.

"Fine by me. I'm up for a leisurely drive," Edward said, laughing.

"Oh, you know that I drive as fast as you do," Alice said.

"No, Alice, I've ridden with both of you, and Edward definitely drives faster," I said.

"One of these days, one of you kids is going to get stopped and they are going to throw you under the jail," Carlisle said.

"If they can catch us," Alice said.

"Hey, that would be fun. Let's try that this summer," Emmett said. "Eddie, you can take your Aston Martin, Alice can drive her Porsche, and I'll buy something fast, too. We'll all get into a chase and see if they can catch us. We haven't tried that before."

"Let's don't and say you did, Emmett. The last thing we need is for the three of you to make national news in a car chase. You really do want to suck the Volturi down our necks, don't you?" Carlisle said.

"Well, it sounded like fun," Emmett said, pouting.

"Wait, did you say Aston Martin?" Thomas asked.

"Yeah, Eddie has one. Didn't you see it when you pulled in?" Emmet asked.

"Emmett, please don't call me Eddie. You know I hate that name. Come on, Thomas. I'll show you my baby." Edward led the way to the garage. He turned on the lights, and Thomas's mouth hit the ground for the umpteenth time today. He walked over to the car and rubbed his hand across the hood.

"I've only seen pictures. She really is yours? How does she drive?" Thomas asked.

"Yes, she really is mine, and she drives like a dream. One day when we have more time, I'll let you drive her. You can drive a stick, can't you?" Edward asked.

"Oh, yeah! What a dream car." Edward only laughed.

"If I could only get Bella to see that. She doesn't get it. She just thinks of it as a pretty car." The whole room laughed. "The one who really appreciates it is Rosalie. She is a mechanic in disguise. She keeps her tuned up and ready to go."

"Good looks and a car aficionado. My God, Emmett. You have every man's dream! Don't let her get away from you." For once, Rosalie looked speechless.

"Well, we hate to play and run, but we'd better get on the road. It'll be late when we get back to Seattle, even with Edward driving," I said. We piled into Edward's car, this time, I rode shotgun. Thomas got into the backseat. I waved good-bye until I couldn't see anyone anymore, and then I turned back around and took Edward's hand into my own. "I had a good time this afternoon. Emmett looked great, and Esme, she was a sight for sore eyes. I've missed them, Edward, so much."

"Do you want to stop by and see Charlie while you're here?" Edward asked.

"No! If he sees you, he'll try to kill you first, then tell Jacob about it second. That would be a bad idea."

"Are you going to have me change you without seeing him again?" Edward asked me.

"I don't know. I guess I'll need to see him some time beforehand, just to say my good-byes. He is going to be the only one in my family that I'll miss. I'll just call Rene', or E-mail her."

"And Jacob. What about him? When are you going to tell Jacob that I'm back? We really aren't being fair, going behind his back like this, Bella. You know good and well that there isn't anything between you two. I asked Jasper what you were feeling when the talk turned to Jacob, and he said sadness and friendship, but no grief and no love. Bella, no matter when you tell him, it's going to hurt him. The longer that you wait, the harder it's going to be. Do you want me to tell him for you, love?"

"No, Edward. That is something that I have to do. I don't want to worry about it before the test on Friday. I don't need that kind of emotional distraction right before the first test." Thomas remained quiet during the trip to Seattle. I couldn't call it home anymore. Home was with the Cullens. I could tell that he was thinking, but I'd have to wait until Edward and I were alone to ask what he was thinking about.

We made it back to Seattle about 11 o'clock. Edward drove Thomas to his car in the school parking garage. Thomas thanked us for an enlightening evening. Then we headed to my apartment. On the way home, I asked Edward what Thomas was thinking about on the way back. He told me that he was thinking about how strong and unbreakable Emmett seemed to be. I asked him if that fight was staged, and he said that Alice did set it up. She thought, and he agreed, that Thomas needed to see what he would be going up against if he were to try to go against the Cullens. Then he said that Thomas was thinking about losing me. All of the talk about me changing had him upset. He didn't want to lose me, but he was starting to give up hope, especially when he heard me talking about not finishing medical school before I was changed.

When we arrived at my apartment, I immediately went to get my shower. I brushed my teeth and still wrapped in my towel, I went into the bedroom. Edward was sitting on the edge of the bed, waiting for his turn in the bathroom. His eye widened as he glimpsed me in the towel. I went to take the towel off so that I could get dressed for bed, fully intending to give Edward a complete view of my body, when he wrapped his arms around me, preventing me from dropping the towel. "Bella," he said, some gruffness to his voice. "Exactly what do you think that you are doing?"

"I'm getting ready for bed," I said, trying to sound as innocent as possible.

"Bella, please wait until I get into the bathroom to get dressed for bed. You know that it would be improper for me to see you without clothes on," Edward said.

"Edward, we love one another. There is nothing wrong with us seeing each other's bodies. I want to worship your body. We don't have to make love. I understand your hesitation about that, but that isn't the same thing as looking and touching each other in a loving manner. It is no different than kissing, and you are willing to kiss me, on the lips, and on my neck, and on my collar bone. Yes, it is sensual and loving and a display of your love for me. This would be no different."

"Bella, it would be different. Your body is meant to be worshiped by your husband, and as much as I hate to say it, that is not me. I would do anything to make you my wife, but right now, that is not possible. I know that it is my own fault; I am the one who left you, but you are already married. If it is too much temptation for you to handle, then I will go back to the house to sleep. I will not cause you to violate your marriage vows."

"Edward, do you truly believe that with us kissing like we have been kissing, and holding each other the way we have been holding each other, and sleeping in each other's arms, even though you haven't touched my breasts or any other of my parts, do you believe that I've been faithful to Jacob? Do you believe that I've stayed true to the intent of the vows that I made to remain faithful only to him until death do us part with the way that I've kissed you, with the promises that I've made to you, with the declarations of love that I've made to you? Edward, I broke my vows to Jacob as soon as I woke in your arms in the anatomy lab after I fainted. That was when I lusted for you and your love for the first time. We didn't have to be together sexually for me to have been untrue to Jacob." I pulled him tightly into my arms and held him close to my body. He held me close to him. He laid his head on the top of mine.

"Bella, I love you. I'm sorry that I have put you in this situation. I should leave now."

"Don't you dare. You are not walking out on me again. I am okay with where we are now. I would like to take it a bit farther, but if you're not comfortable with it, then I'm not going to push you, for now. Go and get your shower. I'll get dressed and meet you in bed. I love you, Edward Cullen." He walked into the shower, and I got dressed into a fairly conservative night shirt and panties. I crawled under the covers and waited for my man to join me. When he came out, he was already dressed in his pajama bottoms, no shirt. He crawled into bed next to me. He pulled me into his side, and I willingly wrapped myself into him. I laid my head onto his shoulder. He rubbed my back through my nightshirt, massaging my aching muscles. I felt bad, keeping him basically nailed to one position while I slept, but he always said that he liked to watch me sleep. It relaxed him. So as he hummed me my lullaby, I drifted off to sleep, another day done. Another day complete with my soulmate by my side.


	6. Chapter 6

**Disclaimer: Stephenie Meyer owns all.**

**Chapter 6: The First Exam**

**Unknown POV**

I knew that eventually they would end up back together. Fate would see to it. I didn't want to kill them separately. What fun would that be? I had been following him around for years. He had no clue. He was so unaware of his surroundings. It was like following a blind and deaf man. He never backtracked. He never patrolled. He was oblivious. Now, she was back in the picture. I would be able to exact my revenge, to see him suffer as I have suffered for the past 5 years. There they were, playing baseball, the way they were the first time that they had the misfortune of crossing my path. I would kill her first while he watched. Then, I would kill him, ripping him apart and burning the pieces. I have waited so long for this. Now, the time was right. I would spring my trap soon.

**BPOV**

Thursday morning started like the ones before. I didn't need an alarm clock anymore. Each morning, I awoke to Edward's kisses. There was no other way that I would chose to begin my day. I think that he was happy to begin the day that was as well. Today, he chose to wake me a little bit earlier than the days before. I believe that he wanted to be on time today, and he figured that I liked to have time to kiss him for a little while. He was right. It usually took me a little time to get enough of him to get out of bed.

We made it to class with plenty of time to spare. We were talking with Alice and Thomas when William made his way too join us. We welcomed him and asked him if he joined the note-taking service. He said that he did because he was afraid not to. He asked us the same, and we said that we hadn't. We generally take our own notes, and we depend on Edward to help us if there is a problem. He asked why Edward chose to go to med school here. Obviously Edward was heads and tails above the rest of us in intelligence, why didn't he go to Harvard or Stanford or some other prestigious school? Edward wanted to say that he'd been there, done that, and had the T-shirt. I could tell. But, he just said, "I wanted to go to school with Bella."

"How do the two of you know each other?" William asked.

"We went to high school together," Edward answered. "She was my first and only girlfriend. We lost touch when we went to college."

"And you married someone that you met in college?" William asked me.

"No, I married another friend from home. When Edward left, he didn't want me to come with him. I turned to Jake, and we became close," I said. "I met Thomas in college."

"And where did you meet Alice?" William asked.

"Alice is Edward's sister. We met in high school," I said.

"So you are the glue that holds this group together," William said.

"I guess so. I've never thought about it that way," I said. Dr. Elliot called the class to order. He went over several more calculations during the two hour period. He reminded us that all of them would be covered on the test tomorrow. Then he gave us instructions for testing. We were to leave all books and notebooks outside of the classroom. We were to bring in only 2 pencils. We were to skip seats and rows when being seated. We were not to speak once inside the doors. His instructions were making me more nervous than I already was. I packed up my papers, and we walked to the library and made it into our study room.

We took our seats, and Edward stood at the dry erase board. He said, "I'm going to start at the beginning of the problem types. I'm going to make up new problems. We'll go around the room answering them. If anyone has any questions about how to work any of the problems, please stop me. We'll go over more examples of that type of problem. We'll try to get through as many problem types as possible before lunchtime. Is that okay with everyone?" Everyone agreed, and Edward started putting the problems on the dry erase board. Every once and awhile, Alice gave him a sheet of paper with problems written on it. Edward would put the problems on the board and would make sure that we could all work it. I gave him my copies of the problems that Alice had given me, and he made sure that we could all work them as well. By the end of the study period, Alice had given us approximately 50 problems. Edward looked at her, and they had another private conversation. He finally said, "Okay, that should do it for now. We'll go over these some more tonight. William, will you be able to join us?"

"Yes, I should be able to. Where are you meeting?"

"At Bella's apartment. She lives at Ivy Ridge Apartments, #5A. We'll go there after anatomy lab."

"Okay, I'm in."

We went to lunch and Thomas, William, and I ate. Edward and Alice sat with us, keeping the conversation going. "Aren't you two going to eat?" William asked.

"No, we'll get something later," Alice said. I looked at Edward's eyes. They were getting very dark. He really needed to hunt. I know that he hadn't hunted all week. He had spent every night with me, and he didn't go out with Esme and Carlisle when he had planned to. I would have to force him to go out tonight.

While we were sitting at our table, Amanda and Grace came over. They asked if they could sit down. They pulled up two chairs and sat down, not waiting for an answer to their question. One sat next to Edward, and the other sat next to Thomas. "So handsome, what is your name?" Amanda asked Edward.

"Um, Edward, Edward Cullen," he said. If he could have blushed, he would have. Amanda put her hand on his arm. Luckily, he had on a long, sleeved shirt.

"Edward. Is that a family name? You don't hear of many Edward's these days," Grace said from across the table.

"Um, yes, I was named after my grandfather who was born at the turn of the century," he said. Alice stifled a laugh. Edward glared at her. It was obvious that she was saying something in her head, something that Edward wasn't very happy with. "Can it Alice," he said. She just smiled at him, then turned to look at me. I was red faced and fuming. Edward looked at Alice again, then he looked at me. He moved his arm away from Amanda's grip.

"So, Edward, I don't see a wedding band on your finger. Are you attached to anyone?" Amanda asked.

"He is so attached it isn't even funny," Alice said with a grin at me.

"And who are you? His attachment?" Amanda asked with fury in her voice.

"Hell No! I'm his favorite sister, and I'm also attached," Alice said with an evil grin on her face.

"Yes, I'm very attached. I have met my soulmate, and I'll never let her go again," he said with a glance in my direction. He took my hand under the table, giving it a small squeeze. I couldn't help smiling. William glanced in my direction, noticing my smile. He looked back at Edward.

"Well, where is this soulmate? What she doesn't know won't hurt her," Amanda said, reaching to take his hand.

"Amanda, I would never, ever do anything that would betray my soulmate, either in her presence or in her absence. She trusts me implicitly, and I trust her the same. I've hurt her in the past, and I've sworn my life and my allegiance to her. I'm sorry, but you are not part of my present or my future. You've just shown me that you can never be my friend. I can't trust you to be just a friend."

"Edward, you are too good to be true. You are wonderful eye candy. You are nice. You are trustworthy. I hope that your girlfriend knows just how lucky she is," Grace said.

"Don't worry. She does," Alice said, looking me in the eye. "In fact, Edward is the lucky one. After what he did to her, he is lucky that she took him back. He really doesn't deserve her love. We are all lucky that she let us all back in her life. We all love her." I looked down at my tray, tears filling my eyes.

"Excuse me," I said as I got up from the table and took my tray to the return pile. I went to the hallway outside of the cafeteria and leaned up against the wall. Tears were falling down my face now. I don't know what came over me. All of a sudden, the hurt that I felt when he left me returned, and I couldn't get a breath. Within a minute, I felt his arms wrap around me. I looked up into his face. He put his forehead down onto mine.

"I'm sorry, Bella," he said. "I'm sorry that I left you. I'd do anything to be able to change it, to take it back, to make it right, to take the hurt away from you. If I had a soul to give, I'd give it up to take the hurt away from you. I love you so much. I swear with all that I am that I'll never leave your side again." He reached down and kissed me softly on the lips. Then he hugged me. I hugged him back.

"Edward, I love you with all of my heart. I've forgiven you for leaving me, but sometimes the pain still breaks though. It's okay. I'll be okay. Let's go to class. I don't want to face anyone right now, alright?"

"Alright. Let's go." We walked to class. He took his seat, and I sat next to him in Alice's seat. I took his hand in mine, not caring who saw us.

"Edward, I want to go to your house this weekend. I want to spend some time with your family. Is that okay?" I asked. "I need to spend some time with your family. I also want to discuss you changing me. What do you think about Christmas break?"

"Well, I guess that would be okay. You will burn for 3 days. The family will be able to be with you for the whole time. We will be able to fake your death given enough time to plan it. It will be a hard time for Charlie to lose you, but anytime will be a hard time for Charlie to lose you. It will give Carlisle time to give his notice and for Esme to find us another place to move to. Hopefully, we can do it without the Quileutes finding out about it, so we won't break the treaty."

"We could move before you change me. That way they won't know about it, and the treaty will remain intact, won't it? Then if we wait until this generation is dead before we come back and nobody is the wiser. You could've picked me up anywhere."

"Yeah, that could work. I'll talk to Carlisle about it. What about Thomas and William. We'd be leaving them stranded."

"I don't know. I guess that we'll be moving. I guess that you two will just not be coming back." It was then that the three of them came into the auditorium. Alice looked at me in her seat, and she sat down by Thomas. William looked at us holding hands, but he didn't say anything. He took his seat on the other side of Edward. The anatomy lecture was straight forward today, covering the brachial plexus, the pairing up and subsequent division of nerve roots leaving the spinal cord from the neck and going into the shoulder and then into the arm to supply all of the nerve function for the arm. It was a very complicated system, with different parts of the hand receiving innervation from multiple levels of the neck. It was really cool to realize that the patterns of feeling, called dermatomes, aren't what you would think. The thumb and the little finger are supplied by totally different nerves.

Afterward, we went to anatomy lab. We pulled out our cadavers, and today, we started the dissection of the posterior (back) part of the shoulder. We began by skinning the shoulder. We identified the bony structures that were initially visible, and then we began with the superficial muscles. By the end of lab, we were starting to move to the deep muscles of the posterior shoulder. As soon as 5 o'clock arrived, the lab emptied. Everyone was going to study for the biochem exam. I walked to the parking garage with Edward, Alice, Thomas, and William. William said that he would follow us to my apartment. He exited the garage behind Edward and me. I called Domino's and ordered some pizza so that it would arrive soon after we did. On the way home, Edward said, "Bella, William is having some questions about our relationship. He knows that you are married, but he saw me holding your hand in anatomy, and he started questioning it when I followed you out of the cafeteria. He suspected that there might be something going on between us in class, but now that you are riding in with me, his suspicions are growing even stronger."

"Well, if he is going to be in our study group, I suspect that he will figure it out. I'm not willing to stay out of your arms at my apartment. As long as he doesn't get in touch with Jake, I really don't care. I do not want him to find out about you and Alice, though. That would put too much pressure on me. I don't know him, and having Thomas know our secret is too much. Please tell Alice not to tell. Oh, and by the way. I want you to go hunting tonight. It won't take you too long. It has been way too long since you've been. I know that you must be burning all of the time. Once I fall asleep, you go. Okay?"

"I don't want to go, but yes, I will. I am burning, more than I like to be. I'll go with Alice and Jasper. He needs to go, too. And Alice heard you. She agrees about not telling William."

We pulled up to my apartment. Edward carried my books while I opened the door. We all went inside, and I told them that I'd ordered pizza. When the doorbell rang, Edward opened the door and payed for the pizza. William and Thomas tried to pay him for their share, but he waved them off. I got everyone something to drink, and we sat in the floor and ate, all except Edward and Alice.

My phone rang during supper. I looked at the caller and my face fell. I answered it, "Hello, Jake. What's up?"

"Nothing much. We're doubling up on patrols. We've picked up a new leach scent. It criss-crosses from our land to their land and back again. Seth has come across it a couple of times, and Leah has come across it once. We've never smelled this one before."

"Please don't use that word. I've asked you several times. You know that I find it very offensive. Now that they are back, I saw Carlisle in the cafeteria, you know it could be one of them."

"What reason would they have to cross the treaty line. Not even the Cullens are that stupid. They know that it would mean war between us."

"I don't know why they would do that either. Have you or Sam called Carlisle? Have you asked him if it one of them? That would be the proper place to start, not to just assume it was one of them."

"I don't want to talk to that leach. I don't know why Sam does it."

"Jacob, if you are going to insist on calling them by that word, then I'm not going to speak with you. Sam calls him because he is doing what is proper for his group of followers. You should be willing to do the same as a group leader."

"Oh I get it. Someone is with you. You can't talk. Who is it? Is Edward with you?"

"Yes, Jake. You're right. Someone is with me. We have a test tomorrow. My study group is here with me. Anyway, Seth or Leah didn't recognize the person? This is someone that they've never been introduced to in the past?"

"No, this isn't any leach that we've ever knowingly run across. They're sure of it. We don't know for sure that it isn't one of the Cullen's, but we're a little bit worried that it isn't."

"I've got to go now, Jacob. I've got to study. I'll talk to you later. Bye." I hung up the phone. I walked into the kitchen, and Edward and Alice followed me in. "Jake said that there is a vampire scent that Seth and Leah have both picked up today. It crosses back and forth over the treaty line. They've never smelled it before, but they're not sure that it isn't one of yours."

"We would never cross the treaty line. It has to be someone else. Did they call Carlisle?" Alice said.

"Jacob didn't. I don't know if Sam did or not. Both Seth and Leah are in Jake's pack so I doubt that Sam would," I said. Alice picked up her phone and dialed Carlisle's number. She spoke to him in her vampire voice and quickly hung up as Thomas and William walked into the kitchen.

"Who was that?" William asked. "Is something wrong?"

"That was my husband. There has been some action on the reservation where we live. He is part of the reservation's security detail, and he was calling to keep me updated. He is just too stubborn to call in help when he needs it. Anyway, I took care of it. Let's go study if you are finished eating. We don't have all night."

We went into the living room, and Edward sat on the floor with his back up against the wall. I sat down between his legs and leaned against his chest. William just stared at us. I looked at him, and then I said, "William, you look very uncomfortable. Are Edward and I making you feel uneasy?"

"Well, to be honest with you, Bella, I am a little bit uncomfortable with how familiar the two of you seem with each other. I am a deacon in my church, and I feel like the two of you are a little too close considering that you are a married woman."

"William, I'm sorry if my relationship with Edward is making you uncomfortable. Edward and I have a long history together. He was my first boyfriend. He is the one man in the whole world that I love with all of my heart. I haven't done anything with Edward that would violate my wedding vows, but I will not be ashamed of being close to him. As long as I am still married to Jake, Edward and I will continue to have a platonic relationship, as we have always had. We have never been together in a Biblical sense."

"I don't mean to enforce my values onto the two of you. I just feel a little bit strange watching the two of you being so close. That's all," William said.

"You'd be surprised to know that Edward's values closely mirror your own," Alice said, looking at William. I grinned and looked up at Edward and gave him a kiss on the cheek.

"Let's get this studying over with," Edward said. He went over all 50 problems that Alice had given him. We could work them all. We finished them within 3 hours. Then everyone left to go home. Everyone except Edward. He tucked me into bed and hummed my lullaby to me. I went to sleep, and sometime during the night, Edward slipped out to go hunting with Alice and Jasper. I slept restlessly, missing his presence. At some point in the night, he returned. I felt him slip into bed with me, and I snuggled up next to him, relishing the coolness of his body next to mine.

When morning came, he again woke me up with kisses. I looked into his eyes to see that they were again the amber that I had come to treasure. I deepened our kiss, allowing his tongue access to my mouth. He wrapped me up in his arms, and I felt secure. My life was again tranquil, all except telling Jacob the truth. I pulled away from our kiss and told Edward that I was going to shower. I stepped into the bathroom and got into the shower. My thoughts suddenly on Jacob and how hurt he was going to be. I knew that he loved me; he always had. Billy, Jacob's father, had kept trying to get Edward and me to break up when Edward and I were dating the first time. He had even gone so far as to have paid Jacob to crash our prom and warn me to break up with Edward. I didn't know it then, but Jacob already had feelings for me.

After we broke up, his feelings only intensified. He was the one to put my pieces back together. He truly loved me. I knew this. I also knew that he hated vampires, all of them, but especially Edward. This situation would not end well. He would not take the news well at all. He would be devastated that I broke up with him, divorcing him, but because it was Edward that I was leaving him for, he would probably lose control and try to kill Edward. That was why I was afraid to tell him the truth. I don't know when or how I was going to get up enough nerve to tell him what I know that I must tell him.

My reverie was interrupted by a knock on the door. "Are you all right in there, Bella?"

"Yes, I'm fine. I was just thinking, that's all. Sorry, I'll be out in a bit." I hurriedly washed, and got out of the shower. I got dressed and went into the kitchen where Edward had my breakfast waiting for me.

"What were you thinking about so deeply? I knocked three times before you answered."

"Telling Jacob that you're back and that we're back together. I'm afraid that he'll go after you."

"Oh, I was hoping that you were just nervous about the test this morning. I'll go with you to tell him. That way he won't take it out on you. I'm worried that he'll phase and that you'll get hurt."

"No, Edward. That would be giving him a big target just looming right in front of him. I can't expose you to him in that way. Maybe Alice would go with me."

"I'm sure that she would. I would be only a stone's throw away, though. I really don't want you to be anywhere around him when he finds out. Why don't you tell him over the phone?"

"Edward, that wouldn't be right, and you know it. I couldn't do that to him. I do care for him. He is a very good friend. You have to accept that. He still means a lot to me. I don't love him the way that I love you, but I do love him in his own way."

"Come on, love. Eat your breakfast. Let's get through the rest of today, and we'll talk about how to tell him later tonight." I sat down and ate the wonderful breakfast that he prepared for me. He got dressed, and we left for school.

We went immediately to the 7th floor and left our bookbags in our lockers, each of us only bringing our mechanical pencils with us. We headed back to the lower auditorium. We stood outside of the doors waiting for Alice to join us. It didn't take long for her to prance down the hallway. She made her way to me and took me into her arms for a hug. It was then that I saw that Jasper was behind her. "I thought that you could use some calming this morning," Alice said.

"Thank you," I said, as a wave of calm encased my body.

"If you sit towards the back of the room, I will be able to keep your emotions under control," Jasper said. "I sense that you are also afraid. What are you afraid about, Bella?"

"I've been contemplating telling Jake about Edward and me," I said.

"Let that thought leave your mind. I'm going to take that fear away from you now," Jasper said, and suddenly, my body felt more relaxed, more calm, more sedate. My legs almost collapsed beneath me. Edward caught me before I fell.

"Wow, I didn't know that I was carrying so much emotional baggage," I said, laughing. I almost felt giddy.

"I think that you need to back it off a little, Jazz," Alice said. "You don't want the professors to think that she is high, do you?" I started to feel a little more down to earth.

"That's better," I said. "I think that I can stand now, Edward. Thank you." I looked up and saw Thomas and William looking at us.

"Hi Thomas," Jasper said, looking at him. He looked back at me. "How are you feeling now, Bella?"

"Much better. Thank you, Jazz." I went up to him and gave him a hug. "I really appreciate you coming out here this early in the morning to wish me good luck. Oh, let me introduce you to the fifth member of our study group. Jasper, this is William Wads. William, this is Jasper Hale, Alice's husband."

"It is nice to meet you, William," Jasper said, shaking William's hand. "I'll be waiting out here for you guys to finish your exam. Best wishes to you all. Now you get in there Ali-cat and good-luck. Best wishes to you too, Edward and Bella. You too, Thomas ans William."

"Thanks again, Jazz," I said. We all went into the auditorium and took seats. I sat as close to the back of the room as I could. I continued to feel calm, even as Dr. Elliot entered the room and began passing out the exams. An assistant followed behind him and passed out hand held calculators. I had complete faith that Alice had seen the correct exam and that I could work the problems that I would be facing. Dr. Elliot told us to keep the exams face down until he told us to start. As soon as he had passed out all of the exams, he walked to the front of the classroom. He announced that the exam results would be posted outside of his office on the third floor Monday morning. He then told us to begin.

I turned over my exam and took a deep breath. I immediately felt a wave of calm come over my body. I really loved Jasper. I looked at the first problem and recognized it at once. I completed it and moved on. I quickly worked through the test. Having finished it so early, I started back at the beginning and reworked the problems, being super careful to enter the numbers correctly. I noticed that Edward turned in his paper when I was halfway through checking mine. Alice soon followed. I felt another calming wave slip over me. I continued to check my work. I finished the test the second time, finding no mistakes. I got up and went to the front of the class. I turned in my paper and the calculator. I climbed the stairs, and met Edward, Alice, and Jasper in the hallway.

"Where have you been all of my life. Your power made that the most comfortable exam that I've ever taken. Will you come back for the rest of my tests?"

"Of course I will, darlin'. Anytime that you need me," Jasper said with a grin on his face. We walked Jasper out to the guest parking lot. He got on his motorcycle and drove away.

"Okay, which one of you arranged that?" I asked, turning on Edward and Alice.

"Um, guilty," Alice said, raising her hand a little, looking timid for once.

"Thank you so much," I said, jumping into her arms to give her a big hug. "I've never been so calm for an exam in my life."

"Then you're not mad?" she asked.

"No, not at all," I said with a grin on my face. "Now, let's get our books and get to studying. We didn't even look at our anatomy lab for today." We walked down the hall to the library. We went into our usual room and began pulling out our anatomy material. We started to read the lab manual, and we were soon joined by William and then by Thomas. "Well, how do you think that you did on the exam?" I asked them.

"I think that I did very well," Thomas said at once. "Edward, you prepared us for each and every one of those problems. Thank you very much."

"Yes, I did well, too. It's funny, though. A lot of those problems looked very familiar. Did you have a test from last year or something?"

"Yes, or something," Edward said, laughing. "Don't worry. We didn't cheat. We didn't have a copy of this year's test to work with. Just some problems from here or there. Nothing concrete. Now, we've been reading today's anatomy lab. We're going to be extending the shoulder dissection down the posterior arm. We're supposed to finish the deep shoulder and extend it to the elbow, superficial and deep." He went on to explain using the atlas the muscles, the origin and insertion, the blood supply, and the innervation, taking it back to the brachial plexus. Then he started to quiz us, starting on the superficial muscles of the posterior shoulder. Then he did something that we didn't expect. He made us begin learning the artery's roots. He made us start tracing the artery back to the aorta. He promised us that we would be grateful for the information, soon. When we were having trouble identifying an artery on our lab practical, if we could identify a leading artery, we could follow it to ours. It would be a lifesaver. So we trusted him, and began learning what he told us to learn. William again eyed him nervously.

We were in the middle of trying to process all of the information, Edward leaning over my shoulder showing me in the atlas where the blood supply of the deltoid muscle came from, when the door to our study room flew open. "You!" I heard, and Edward went flying across the room. I looked up in time to see Jacob leap across the table, scattering books everywhere, before pinning Edward to the back wall with his hand to Edward's throat.

Then several things happened at once. I screamed, "Jacob, don't!" Seth barged into the room only to be met by Alice who had jumped up, pinning him to the wall. William and Thomas knocked their chairs down as they got up, presumably to help Edward. And Edward threw Jacob back across the room, pinning him to the ground.

"Jacob, this isn't the time or the place for this," Edward said. "If you want to, we can take this outside, but you need to calm down, right now."

"Jake, not here. You know that you can't do this here. Calm down," I said, getting into his face. His hands were already trembling. He was going to phase, I could tell. We had to get him out of here, now. "Edward, you have to get him out of here. Alice, let Seth go. Seth, you and Edward get him out of here." Alice let Seth go, and Seth came over.

"Jake, dude. Calm down. This isn't the time or the place. Come on, man. You can get this under control. Think of why we're here. We've got to protect Bella. Come on man. Get yourself together." At Seth's words, Jacob began to visibly calm down. His shaking began to ease.

"Oh My God!" Edward exclaimed. "Did you bring anything they touched?"

"Let me up you leach," Jacob said. Edward stood up and released Jacob who walked over to me. He said, "Our house was ransacked while I was out patrolling last night. Whoever did it was after your things. Your clothes were shredded and all over the floor. Your Grandmother's quilt that you like to snuggle in was torn to bits." I suddenly felt weak. Thoughts of James flooded my mind. What Jake had said last night had come back to me full blast. There was a new vampire skirting the treaty line, never staying on one side or the other long enough for either group to catch them. Alice caught me as I fell to the ground. "It's because you came back. If you had stayed gone, they would have never come back. For five years, we've been leach free. Now you are back for a month, and we already have another leach to deal with. One that wants Bella again. I won't let her go through what she went through with James. I'm taking her home to the res so that we can protect her."

"Did you bring anything that they touched?" Edward asked again.

"Yes, I brought one of her sweaters. I hoped that Carlisle could help. Here it is," Jacob said.

Edward took the sweater and held it up in front of him as if he were looking at it. Then he took a deep breath. Alice did the same. "It's Victoria. I'm sure of it. Alice?"

"Yes, I'm sure, too," she said. "We've got to get Bella to the house. I'll call Carlisle," Alice said.

"Wait, Bella is my wife. She is coming with me to the res. We'll protect her this time. We saw what happened when you tried to protect her last time. She almost got killed," Jacob said.

"No, I'm going with Edward and Alice. I'm sorry, Jacob. I really am, but you know, and you always have known that my place is with Edward and his family. Don't even pretend that this surprises you. You knew as soon as you found out that the Cullens were back that I would be going with them, with or without Edward, forever."

"Bella, you don't know what you are saying. They left you. They don't want you. You are with me, now. We made a forever for ourselves," Jake said.

"No, Jake. My forever is with the Cullens. You know that. You've always known that."

"We do want her. Every one of us wants her, except maybe Rosalie, but she'll come around in time. She will be a Cullen. Even Edward agrees, and he was the last hold out," Alice said.

"You'll break the treaty then. This means all out war. We'll fight to the last one of us is standing," Jacob said, starting to tremble again.

"So be it," Edward said. "The treaty hasn't been violated, yet. Seth, he is having a hard time controlling his emotions again. You may want to take him to a more private place where he can let it all out."

"Edward, Alice, it doesn't have to end this way. Bella, honey, please rethink your decision. I don't want to have to fight you. I love you like a sister. Don't fall into their ruse of eternity. Come back to us. We all love you, and we don't want to have to kill you if you do this."

"Seth, I love you like a little brother, too, but my mind is made up. It was made up six years ago. I will be a Cullen. Now get Jake out of here before the unthinkable happens in this oh too public place."

Seth walked over to Jacob and put his arm around his shoulders. "Come on, Jake. Let's get you out of here. She's right. You don't want to let it out here. We'll get you outside of the city, and then you can just let it out. Calm down, man."

Jake took one more look at Edward, and he jumped him again. Edward was standing near the door of the study room, and the force of the hit sent him tumbling out into the library proper. The sound that it made was like cymbals crashing. Edward jumped up as soon as he hit the ground. He looked at Jacob and motioned to the door of the stairwell that led to the first floor then to the outside. Jacob looked to where he was motioning. "No," I said. "Please you two. Can't this wait until this weekend?" They both shook their heads. They walked to the stairwell. I looked at Alice and then to Seth. "Can't you two do anything?" I begged. They both looked at me and shook their heads. "One of them is going to get hurt. Don't you care?"

"They'll both heal," Seth said. "They need to work this out." I went to follow them into the stairwell, and Alice grabbed me around the waist.

"Oh no you don't. You don't want to get into the middle of this. I've called Carlisle. He should be here soon," she said. I looked back around at the door to the stairwell, knowing full well that the outcome would not be good.

"Bella, why don't you come back into the study room and sit down," Thomas said, taking me by the arm. "Let Alice and Seth, it is Seth isn't it?" Seth nodded. "Seth take care of this. Come back in here and let's get your books packed up."

"Go with Thomas. We will need to leave for Forks as soon as Carlisle gets this straightened out," Alice said. She let me go, and after taking one more look at Seth and her and realizing that neither of them was going to let me out of the room, I turned and followed Thomas back into the study room. I started picking up our books and separating them into the correct piles. When everything was straightened, I sat down on one of the chairs. I put my head into my hands and began to cry.

"Bella, everything is going to be okay. You don't really think that they will hurt each other, do you?" Thomas asked me. William just looked at me with anger on his face.

"Thomas, yes, I do believe that they will hurt one another. If Jacob doesn't back off, Edward will be forced to hurt him. Jacob is so angry right now, I'm afraid that his instincts will take over, and he will try to kill Edward. Then Edward will be forced to hurt him. I don't think that Jacob is going to come out of this without getting hurt, and it will be his own damn fault. Jacob isn't any match for Edward one on one."

"Bella, you know that it isn't Jacob's fault. The fault lies with you and Edward. It was the two of you who were sneaking around behind your husband's back. Don't blame any of this on Jacob. It isn't his fault that you lied to him, that you stepped out on him with Edward. He has every right in the world to call Edward out. I would be worried about Edward getting hurt. Jacob must outweigh Edward by a good 50 pounds, and he has at least a half foot on him," William said.

"So you and Edward have gotten back together," Seth said, coming back into the room, followed by Alice. "Jake said that it would happen in time. He knew that one day he would come back for you, and that you would go to him. When he found out that they were back, he told us that you were gone for good. He knew it. We all hoped that he was wrong. You and Jake were good together, Bella."

"Seth, I know that you don't understand, that you'll never understand," I started to say.

"That you want to be a leach! You're right Bella. I don't understand, and I never will," Seth said, running his fingers through his hair.

It was then that Carlisle walked into the study room. I stood up, immediately noticing the blood on his clothing. "How bad is he hurt?" I asked, dreading the response.

"Seth, you need to get him back to Forks. I will be right there to attend to his wounds. I've patched him up as much as I can without drawing notice. Take him to my house. Billy doesn't need to see him in this state. He is in the backseat of your car," Carlisle said. "Bella, Alice, Edward is waiting in the parking garage for you. I'm going to go change clothes and then speak to your dean to arrange a leave of absence for the three of you until we figure out about this Victoria thing. Go."

We picked up our bags and Edward's. Thomas put his hand on my arm and asked me if it would be okay for him to call me. I nodded and then followed Alice out to the parking garage. I met Edward at his car. He was shirtless, and his pants had blood on them. I put the two backpacks into the backseat and climbed into the car. "Are we going back to the apartment first?"

"No. We'll get anything that you need once we get to Forks," he said. "Bella, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to hurt him so badly. He just kept coming at me again and again. At first, I just kept pushing him back, but he kept coming, biting at me. I told him to take it easy, that I didn't want to hurt him, but his thoughts kept coming back to you and me making love. I told him that we had never been together like that, but he just wouldn't listen. I told him that I would never touch you like that, and he just kept charging me. I finally had to do something to get his attention. I threw him against some rocks. I heard a rib break, but it didn't slow him down. He got even madder. He kept attacking me, Bella. I had to finally fight back. I know that I hurt him. I'm so sorry. I had to. I didn't have a choice."

"Edward, I trust you. If you said that you had no other choice, then I believe you. Carlisle said that he was hurt pretty badly, too badly to let Billy see."

"Yes, love. He's hurt badly. I don't think that any of his injuries are lethal, but he will take time to recover," he said, a grimace on his face.

Soon, we were on the open road, well on our way back to Forks. I rested my head against the window, reflecting on what had happened today. I had successfully taken and aced my first exam in medical school. Then all hell broke loose. Jake had arrived to tell me that an unknown vampire was again after me. Fortunately, or not, Edward and Alice identified the vampire in question as Victoria, one of the three vampires who had interrupted our initial baseball game. What reason did she have to go after me? After all, I had never done anything to her. Well, that didn't stop James from going after me, did it? Then, Edward had almost killed Jacob. Whether he deserved it or not, Jacob was still my husband. How would this affect the treaty? Would the fact that Jacob had started the fight make a difference? How would Sam react? How would the rest of Jacob's pack react, especially since we were taking him to the Cullen house?

By the time we had reached the Cullen house, everyone had gathered, except Carlisle. He had a late start, having to arrange leave of absences for the three of us and for himself. Everyone quickly gathered in the living room. Edward filled everyone in on what had transpired at Jacob's house. He also told them about Jacob's and his confrontation and the fact that Carlisle had told Seth to bring Jake here so that he could treat his injuries. Rosalie wasn't happy about that at all. Edward told her to just take it up with Carlisle when he got here. Then we just sat and waited.

Carlisle arrived soon after. He brought us into the dining room, the room where we usually held our family meetings. He told us that he had spoken with Sam on the way home. He told Sam about the altercation between Edward and Jake, and though Sam wasn't happy about it, he understood why it happened. He also understood why Jake was being brought to the Cullen house. Carlisle promised him that as soon as he had done what he had to do to Jake so that he would heal properly, Seth would take him back to Billy's. Jake wouldn't be able to take care of himself for several weeks, even with his werewolf healing properties. Then he said that all of the werewolves would be running extra patrols until we caught Victoria. The rest of us, meaning the Cullens, would also start running routes, paired two at a time. I was never to be left alone. This time, I was not to run away. I was to stay within the walls of the Cullen house unless I was escorted by one of them.

I started to say something about how this wasn't fair to all of them, when Alice told me to just shut up. I was a part of their family now, and they were going to take care of me. I wasn't to argue the point. I had made my decision to be a part of their family, and now I had to live with the consequences of my choice. She then got up and came over to give me a hug. Emmett followed her, then Jasper, then Esme, and finally Carlisle. Then Carlisle said, "Daughter, we aren't going to let anything happen to you, ever again. Don't forget that Edward isn't the only one of us Cullens that loves you."


	7. Chapter 7

**Disclaimer: Stephenie Meyer owns it all.**

**Chapter 7: The Aftermath**

After they all hugged me in the dining room, well all of them except Rosalie, Carlisle suggested that we all go into the living room and make ourselves more comfortable. I followed Edward and when he took a seat on the couch, I sat down in his lap, wanting to feel his arms around me. Carlisle sat down in a chair across the room. When everyone was seated, he said, "Edward, I need you to tell me exactly what happened this morning, every detail. We need to know what was seen and heard so that we can know what needs to be covered up. I know that things may have been said in the heat of the moment that may need to be explained in some way. I know that Thomas was there, and he already knows about us, so he shouldn't be a problem. However, there was another person there. Is he going to be a problem?"

I grimaced. Edward took a deep breath and rubbed his nose, like he always did when he was thinking about something. "We finished our biochem exam and went to the library to study. We were going over the anatomy lab, and I was leaning over Bella's shoulder showing her the arterial supply of the deltoid when the door slammed open. The next thing that I knew, I was pushed over the table, and Jacob had me pinned against the wall. He cried out, "You!"

"Did you not hear him coming?" Carlisle asked.

"No, my thoughts were on other things," he said, looking down at me. I blushed and reached up to give him a kiss on the lips which he lovingly returned. When Carlisle cleared his throat, I blushed again. "Oh, sorry. Anyway, I heard Bella call out, "Jacob, don't," and I turned on him and threw him to the floor on the other side of the table. Seth had followed Jacob into the room, and Alice had him pinned to the wall behind Bella."

"What were Thomas and the other boy thinking?"

"Well, Thomas was thinking that he needed to get Bella away from the fight. He turned his chair over trying to get up. He was trying to get to her, but I blocked his way when I threw Jacob down to the floor. Then he just stepped back. William's thoughts were fragmented at best. He was shocked when the door opened, and Jake threw me across the table. He was stunned at how big Jake was. Then when Bella called his name, he figured that it was going to be a lover's spat, that Jacob had finally caught us cheating. He tried to get up out of his chair to pull Jacob off of me, turning his chair over in the process. Then, when I threw Jake to the ground, he was stunned. He thought that I should be the weaker of the two of us. Then when he saw that Alice had Seth pinned, his mind refused to comprehend that. He thought that she was just standing in front of him to keep him out of the fight."

"Okay, so far there's nothing that we need to worry about. He made up an explanation for himself," Carlisle said.

"Then, I told Jake to calm down, and we could take it outside if he wanted to. I told him that the library wasn't the place to fight it out. Then Bella got down on her hands and knees and also told him to calm down. He was shaking badly, and I thought that he was about to phase right then. Bella told Alice to let Seth go and for him to help me get Jake outside. Seth came over and was able to talk him down."

"What exactly did Seth say?" Carlisle asked.

"He said, 'Jake, dude. Calm down. This isn't the time or the place. Come on, man. You can get this under control. Think of why we're here. We've got to protect Bella. Come on man. Get yourself together.' Then Jake looked at Bella, and he began to calm down. His shaking started to slow down, and he started to think about coming home from his patrol. He smelled the vampire as soon as he came out of the woods in the back of the house. He phased back to his human form and went inside. The house was ransacked. He phased back and started going from room to room, looking for the vampire. When he was satisfied that she wasn't there anymore, he called out to Seth who was patrolling and explained what was going on. Then he phased back to his human form and waited on Seth. He called Sam to let him know what happened. When Seth got there, they grabbed the sweater and took off to come and get Bella to take her back to the reservation to protect her. This memory took about 5 seconds. I then asked him if he brought something that she touched. He called me a leach and told me to let him up. That was when he told Bella about what had happened. He finished the story with the accusation that it was all our fault. That if we hadn't come back, that Victoria wouldn't be here, now, looking for Bella."

"How did he phrase the accusation?" Carlisle asked.

"He said, 'It's because you came back. If you had stayed gone, they would have never come back. For 5 years, we have been leach free. Now, you're back for a month, and we already have another leach to deal with. One that wants Bella again. I won't let her go through what she went through with James. I'm taking her back to the res so that we can protect her.' That was when I asked him again for the sweater. He gave it to me, and both Alice and I recognized Victoria's scent. Alice said that we needed to get Bella to the house, and Jacob balked and said that she was his wife and that she was going with him to the res. That they'd protect her this time. That when we tried to protect her from James that she'd almost been killed."

"What was Thomas's and William's reactions to that?" Carlisle asked.

Edward took his hand and ran it through his hair. "There were so many thoughts going on at once. Seth was thinking that if he had to fight to get Bella out that it was going to be a bad outcome because of all of the witnesses. He was worried that Jake was going to get upset again and that we wouldn't be able to keep him from phasing this time. To tell the truth, I was worried about the same thing. Jacob wasn't keeping his voice down at all. We were drawing a crowd. Thomas was following the conversation pretty well. He knew that Jacob was a werewolf from our earlier discussion and thought that he knew that Seth was one, too. He didn't know what powers Jacob and Seth had, and was scared of them. He was backed up in the corner, well away from Jacob. He was scared for Bella to be in the middle of Jacob and me. He was wanting to grab her and pull her away from us. He was just too scared of Jacob to move. He knew that what we were talking about was a vampire after Bella, and he wanted her to go with us. William. William didn't have a clue what we were talking about. He thought that leach was just a name that Jacob had for my family at first, but then when he heard that 'another leach' had come into the picture, he got confused again. One time he did make the connection that a leach is a blood sucker, but it left his mind as soon as it entered it. He never thought the word vampire. He thought that Jacob was embellishing the story just a little bit to make it sound better when he said that we almost let Bella get killed the last time. After all, nobody that he knows has ever been almost killed before. That is out of the realm of his social clique. He wondered how Bella could be so unique that these people would be after her to kill her. Then he just waved it off as exaggeration."

"Well, that's not the best news, but I think that we can still handle it. I hope that William doesn't focus on Jacob's calling us leaches. It isn't a very far leap to vampire from that," Carlisle said. "What happened next?"

"Bella told Jake that she wouldn't go back with him, that she was coming with us. She told Jake that he knew that she was going to go with us as soon as we came back, and that she would be a Cullen. Jake told me that it would break the treaty and that they would fight us till the last one of them was standing. I told him that if that was the was they wanted it, that was what would happen, but the treaty wasn't violated, yet. I then told Seth that Jake was getting angry again and that Seth needed to get him out of the library. Seth tried to talk Bella out of changing, saying that he didn't want to have to kill her if she 'did this,' but Bella told him that her mind was made up. Then Seth tried to walk Jake out, and he pushed me down again, this time out into the library proper."

"What were Thomas and William thinking?" Carlisle asked.

"Thomas was worried about the treaty. He still doesn't know the terms of the treaty even though he has heard about the existence of it. He almost freaked out when Seth said that if Bella became a Cullen, that it would be a violation of the treaty and that the wolves would have to kill her. He was having a hard time with that one. I think that we're going to hear from him about that. William was furious with Bella. It seems that he is a very religious person, and he was very upset with the fact that Bella was telling her husband that she was picking me and my family over him. When Jacob mentioned treaty, he had no idea why there would be a treaty between Jacob's group and our group. He actually thought that whatever treaty we had would be unenforceable because treaties are between the government and other nations. He was about to say so when Seth said that if we violated the treaty, he really didn't want to have to kill Bella. He thought of going to the police because of a threat against her life. Then I said that the treaty hadn't been violated yet, he calmed down a little bit. I heard him think about asking about the treaty later. He really wasn't happy about Seth threatening Bella. He thought that either Jacob or I should have made more of a big deal of it than we did."

"What do you think? Will he go to the police? Alice, do you see anything either way?" Carlisle asked.

"I've tried to see, but I'm not getting anything clearly. I don't know if it is because it has to do with Seth, or if I'm just not seeing anything, or if he just hasn't made up his mind yet," Alice said.

"Okay, what happened next," Carlisle asked.

"I got up off of the ground, and he was shaking again. I pointed towards the exit staircase, knowing that I needed to get him outside. He told me in his mind to lead the way, so we went downstairs and outside. I led him down to the beach, out of sight of the school, and then he phased and we fought. I led him farther away from the school, into a more isolated area. That's where you found us."

"Was anything else said after Edward and Jacob left?" Carlisle asked.

"Seth and I kept Bella from trying to follow them," Alice said. "but neither of us said anything, wait, Bella said that one of them was going to get hurt, and Seth said that they'd heal. That was in front of some of the crowd that hadn't dispersed, yet."

"Okay, that's pretty innocuous. I don't think that it would be a source of concern," Carlisle said.

"I went back into the study room, and I was really upset. Thomas asked me if I really thought that they would really hurt each other, and I told him that I thought that Jacob was going to lose control and try to kill Edward which would force Edward to defend himself and actually hurt Jacob. I told him that Jacob was no match for Edward one-on-one, that Jacob was going to get hurt, and it would be all Jake's fault. Then William said that nothing would be Jake's fault, that everything would be Edward's and my fault because we were together behind Jake's back. Then he said that I should be more worried about Edward rather than Jake because Jake is so much bigger than Edward. Then Seth came in and asked me if it was true that I was with Edward. I told him that I knew that he didn't understand my decision, and he said, 'That you want to be a leach! You're right, Bella. I don't understand, and I never will.' That's when you walked up, Carlisle," I said.

"I really wish that they hadn't used 'leach' so much in public. It may lead to more questions than we want to answer. Bella, can you call Thomas and find out what if anything William has said?" Carlisle asked.

I pulled out my cell phone and pushed the speed dial button for Thomas. I glanced at the time and saw that only 2 and a half hours had passed since we left. They should still be in the library studying. "Bella, is that you?" Thomas answered.

"Yeah, it's me. How are you doing?" I asked him.

"I'm okay. I'm worried sick about you. Where are you?"

"I'm at the Cullen's. We're all here, well, except Seth and Jacob. They'll probably be another hour or so. Seth doesn't drive that fast. Thomas, I need to ask you some questions."

"Okay, anything. You know that."

"Please answer as cryptically as you can. How is William dealing with what happened?"

"Not so well,"

"Does he suspect that Edward and Alice and Jake and Seth are not human?"

"No, I don't think so."

"Has he said anything that makes you think that he suspects that something is abnormal with us?"

"Yes."

"Is he there now?"

"Yes."

"Is he planning on reporting anything to the police?"

"How did you guess? Yes."

"In Seattle?"  
"No."

"In Forks?"

"Yes."

"Shit. Do you think that you can talk him out of it without making him suspicious of you?"

"I don't know."

"Has he already called?"

"I don't know."

"Has he mentioned that Jacob and Seth kept calling us leaches?"

"No, not really. Well, maybe. That is really descriptive, huh. I didn't know that he had it in him."

"Yeah, I've asked them not to use it just as I've asked these guys not to call them dogs. They all obviously respect my wishes."

"Yeah, I noticed."

"Thomas, can I talk to Bella?" I heard William ask in the background.

"It's okay, I'll talk to him," I said.

"Hi, Bella. Some morning, huh," William said. "How are you doing?"

"I'm still a little bit nervous. It hasn't been one of my best days. How are you holding up? I'll bet that you haven't had many mornings with that kind of activity in your lifetime, either," I said, trying to gauge his mood.

"Well, no. I guess that I haven't. I guess that large guy, Jacob, was your husband?"

"Yes, he is. The other person with him is one of my best friends, Seth. Jacob and Edward don't get along very well, as I guess you could tell. They haven't gotten along since high school. It's always a challenge when they're in the same room together."

"I could tell. Usually when adults don't get along when they're in the same room, they don't break out into fights. There must be more to it than just not getting along."

"The boys on the reservation and the Cullens have been feuding for lack of a better word for several generations, going back at least three generations that I know of. It is a little stronger than not getting along. There is supposed to be a treaty or a truce in place to keep them separated. I guess the founders didn't include Seattle when they drew the lines. The lines are clearly drawn here in Forks."

"Here in Forks? You mean you're already in Forks? I thought that was about a four hour drive?"

"I guess I meant in Forks. It is home, so I always speak as if I'm home." I rolled my eyes.

"Why would it break the treaty for you to become a Cullen?"

"Because I started out on the reservation. I don't think that it would really break the treaty since I'm not Quileute by birth, but Seth was trying to scare me. Quileutes aren't allowed to marry Cullens and vice versa."

"And you are killed if you violate the treaty?"

"You are killed to the tribe. They erase your name from the records, and nobody is allowed to say your name. Seth is one of my best friends. I'd hate to lose his friendship, but if that is the way the tribe wants to treat me, I'm willing to give them up to be with Edward and the Cullens. It would be worth it."

"Why were they calling the Cullens leaches? Why did Seth say that you wanted to be a leach?"  
"They think that because the Cullens are wealthy, they suck the life out of people. They don't see that Carlisle works day and night to heal people, and his wife is an interior decorator. They've raised 5 adopted kids to be respectable adults. It's basically just a derogatory term that Jake said one day that caught on. I hate it, and I've told Jake not to use it. I find it offensive and rude."

"Is Edward okay?"

"Yes, he is fine."

"Is Jacob okay?"

"I don't know. Seth is going to bring him to the Cullen's so that Carlisle can treat him. I'm sure that we'll get there about the same time. Carlisle says that he'll be fine. Nothing serious, just some superficial injuries."

"How can Edward be okay when Jacob is so much bigger than he is?"

"Edward has had years of training. Jacob is just big. Jacob knows this, but he still insists on fighting Edward. This isn't the first time that they've scrapped with each other and Jake's gotten hurt."

"Thomas wants to talk to you again."

"Bella, are you guys going to be coming back?"

"I don't know, Thomas. I really don't know. Carlisle got us a leave of absence for a month. We plan on continuing our studies while we're here. I don't know how long it's going to take to catch Victoria. We may be leaving the area."

"Do you think that you'll be becoming a Cullen anytime soon?"

"I have talked to them about changing me during Christmas holidays, but nothing is in stone."

"Will I see you again?"

"I don't know. I hope so. I know that we'll talk again."

"I already miss you, Bella."

"Me too, Thomas. Take care of yourself, okay."

"Okay, Bye Bella."

"Bye." I hung up the phone.

"Bella, honey, you are a miracle worker. You did great!" Edward said bending down to give me a kiss.

"You really did, Bella. That was amazing. You took everything that he questioned and gave it a perfectly plausible answer. I couldn't have done better myself!" Carlisle said.

After about 30 minutes, my phone rang. I looked at the caller ID. It was Charlie. I took a deep breath and answered the phone. "Hello, Dad. Is something wrong? You never call me during the day."

"Well, Bells. I just got in from a meeting, and I had a message from a member of your medical school class. He said that his name is William Wads, and he said that he is a member of your study group, along with Thomas Gates and Edward and Alice Cullen. He said that you and Edward are seeing each other and that you are leaving Jake for Edward. He also said that your husband and Edward got into a fight this morning, and Jake was hurt pretty badly. He also said that you were leaving school with the Cullens because you were being hunted down by someone named Victoria who broke into Jake's house and destroyed your clothes and that this Victoria is trying to kill you. Did I leave anything out?"

"Dad, I don't know what to say. Where do you want me to start?" I asked in a hesitant voice. Edward took my hand and gave it a slight squeeze.

"How about Edward Cullen," Charlie said with malice in his voice.

"Edward and Alice are in my medical school class. They are both in my study group, along with Thomas and William. I didn't even know that the Cullens were back until the first day of school when I saw them in lab. Edward and I have been sort of together since then."

"What do you mean, sort of together?"

"Dad, that is between me and Edward and Jacob. Jacob knows where Edward and I stand, and he has known it since the Cullens have been back in town. Jacob and I will remain friends if Jacob wants us to be, but my life is going to be with Edward. I am at the Cullen's home now."

"I don't think that you have made a good decision. Don't you remember how you felt when he left you? Don't you remember how hurt you were? How depressed you were?"

"Yes, Dad. I remember it all. Every day of it. Better than either you or Jacob. But, I also know that Edward will never leave my side again. The only time that he has left my side since I found him again is when he and Jacob had their little altercation this morning. Otherwise, he hasn't been more than 5 yards from me in the past week. My heart only beats when he is near."

"You mean that you two have been sleeping together since the day that you met him again?"

"If you must know, then, yes."

"Bella, I raised you better than that. No wonder Jake went off on him. You've cheated on him."

"No, I haven't. You asked if we've slept together. Yes, we have. We haven't been intimate. Edward is a very honorable man. If you would have ever gotten to know him, you'd know that. You never even gave him a chance. You pressed Jacob on me from day one. You want to know what I find interesting, Dad. This student calls you, someone that you don't know from Adam. He tells you that Edward is back in my life. He tells you that Edward and Jake fought this morning. And finally, he tells you that someone named Victoria is trying to kill me and has already broken into my home with Jacob and destroyed my clothes. Yet, the one thing that you want to quiz me about is Edward's and my relationship. Well, Dad. In a nutshell, I love Edward. I'm going to spend the rest of eternity with Edward. Nothing that you, Jacob, or anyone else living or dead can do is going to stop me. Think on that for awhile. I'm with the Cullens, and they are going to protect me from Victoria. They are familiar with her type. Don't worry about me, and don't try to come see me. I'll be fine, but there will be increased protection around the house. I wouldn't want you to get caught up in it. Bye, Dad." I hung up the phone. I was angry, and then I felt a calming wave brush over me. I looked up at Jasper and smiled. "Thanks, I needed that," I said to him. He nodded. Edward just held me closer to him.

"Well, I guess that answers the question of whether William called the police," Alice said, and we all laughed, just a little, nothing to loud, just enough to break the tension that had built in the room.

"Okay, next step. We need to set up some patrols. I think that patrolling as couples will be the most effective way to accomplish this. I need to stay here to tend to Jacob when Seth gets here. Alice, why don't you and Jasper take the first patrol. Emmett and Rosalie can relieve the two of you in six hours, and Esme and I will relieve them after six hours. Edward, your job will be to stay with Bella. I assume that you find this job acceptable," Carlisle said.

"Yes, sir. I won't let her out of my sight," Edward said with a grin on his face. He stood up, lifting me in his arms. He took me upstairs to his room. He laid me on the bed, and he crawled in right next to me, spooning me. He wrapped his arms around me. "How are you really doing, love?"

"I'm angry, hurt, worried, scared, excited, and in love. Basically, I'm an emotional wreck right now. How did you know that I wanted you to hold me?"

"I didn't. I just knew that I wanted to hold you. I can understand angry and hurt. You're angry and hurt that Charlie is more worried that we're back together than anything else, right." I nodded. "As for worried, you're worried about Jacob. Am I right?" I nodded again. "Bella, I'm so sorry about that. I tried so hard not to hurt him. I knew that it would cause a problem."

"Edward, it's not a problem. I just worry about him. He's so stubborn. Too stubborn for his own good, really. He won't take no for an answer. He knew that this was coming. I never told him in so many words, but he knew. I think that he knew from day one that I never loved him. I think that he always knew that if you came back, or for that matter if any of the Cullens came back, that I'd be gone. He never said so, and neither did I, but I think that he still knew."

"Bella, I know that you love me, more than I deserve after what I did to you, but why are you excited?"

"Because, Edward, I just aced my first exam in medical school! Can you believe it? I know that I aced it! It was all because of you! You are the greatest!" I turned over so that I was facing him. I leaned in and started to wrap myself into him. I moved my top leg between his legs and pulled my body right up against his. He tried to pull away from me, but I wrapped my arms around him, pulling him back to me. I leaned in and kissed him, opening my mouth to allow him entrance which he accepted. I began running my fingers through his hair, and he did the same to mine. I began running my hands up and down his back, feeling the muscles that were present under his shirt. Then I pulled on the bottom of his shirt, untucking it from his pants. He broke the kiss and looked at me, a frown appearing on his face. "Edward, it's okay. I'm not going to hurt you. I just need to feel you up against me. Trust me, my love." I continued to untuck his shirt, this time from the front of his pants. Then I began to unbutton it, ever so slowly, waiting to see if he was going to bolt from the bed. I could feel him tensing up, but for the moment, he was staying put. I got to the top button, and released it. Without opening the shirt, I put my hands underneath the fabric. I ran my hands down the front of his body, over his pecs, and down his sides, stopping before I reached the fabric of his pants. I felt him draw in a breath as my hands made the way back up his stomach, reaching back to his sides, moving the shirt ever so slightly away from his body. My hands reached his shoulders, taking the shirt with them, up and over. He sat up in bed, removing my leg from between his. I sat up and moved in front of him. He started to reach down to rebutton his shirt, but I took his hands in mine and brought them up to my lips. I kissed his hands and each of his fingers in turn. Then I leaned in and kissed him on the lips, putting his hands around my neck. He left them there, and I went back to his shirt which I took and pushed back off of his shoulders. He lowered his arms from around my neck and started to pull the shirt back up, and I put my finger to his lips. I told him to stay still, and I pushed the shirt off of his arms and threw it on the floor. I pushed him back, and he laid back on the bed. He tried to cover himself with his arms, but I put them back around my neck. "Edward, relax." I straddled his body and leaned over and started kissing him at his neck. I continued the kisses down his chest, taking each of his nipples into my mouth in turn. He sucked in a breath when I bit down on one of them.

"Bella, love, I..."

"Shhhh," I said, moving back up to kiss him. I felt him relax again, and I started kissing him on the jaw, and on the neck. I moved back down to his collar bone, kissing him on both sides before coming back to the middle. I felt his hands move to my back, and he started moving his hands up and down my back as I kissed him on his chest. I moved back up to his mouth, and he kissed me passionately, attacking my mouth with his. He rolled me over onto my back, and I moved my hands up and down his bare back. He kissed me deeply, then he broke the kiss, moving to kiss me below my ear and moving down to my neck. He had never kissed me like this, and I was panting with the need for him to be closer to me. I knew, however, if I pressed the situation, that I would lose the progress that we'd made up to this point. I pulled him down with my arms. Of course I couldn't move him, but he moved with my pressure against him. I held him down against me and started kissing him on his neck as he did the same to me. I was extremely aroused, and I suspected that he was as well. Without thinking about it, I started moving my hips against his, hungry for some friction. He started to pull away, but I pulled him back and kissed him on the mouth again. He kissed me back, and I wrapped my legs around his hips. He tensed up, but I continued kissing him, and rubbing my hands up and down his back. I continued moving myself against his hips, needing the friction, rubbing myself, starting to feel that little pressure build. I was starting to pant, and he was starting to breath a little heavier as well. He continued to kiss me on the neck as I continued to pleasure myself against him. I was getting so close. I moved faster and harder. Then it happened. I exploded with my orgasm, pushing myself against Edward, grinding into him hard, pulling him into myself. I called out his name, and he held me close to him, until I came down. He kissed me on my neck, as I relaxed back into the bed. He laid down beside me and pulled me into his arms.

"Sleep, Bella," he said as he ran his hands up and down my back. In no time, sleep took me under.

I woke up to screaming. I recognized the voice at once. It was Jake. I was alone in bed. Edward had left me sometime while I slept. I sat up and immediately remembered what I'd done. Oh no! Edward was probably upset with me. I know what he feels about sexual contact, and still I'd pushed him. Not only that, I'd basically masturbated against him. He wouldn't be upset; he'd be furious. How was I going to face him? I couldn't face him. I'd have to leave. Everyone in the house had heard. I couldn't face anyone. I had to leave now. I got up and walked to the door. I cracked it open and peaked out into the hallway. Nobody. Good. I stepped into the hallway and walked to the stairs. I glanced downstairs. Still nobody. I hurried downstairs and to the front door. I quickly opened the door and went outside. I looked around and didn't see anyone. I started running and didn't look back. I just ran until I couldn't run anymore. I didn't know where I was, but I was in the woods somewhere. I sat down and started to cry. I couldn't believe that I had ruined everything. I had just found Edward again, and I ruined it. I didn't know how I let myself get so out of control. I knew better. I definitely knew what Edward felt about sexual contact. His wishes weren't in question. He'd never wavered. He didn't believe in sexual contact before marriage. And I had to screw everything up. He had left our bed. He had never left our bed before. He promised that he wouldn't leave my side, yet after I screwed up, he was so ashamed with what I'd done that he left my side. I had to get away. I stood up and started walking again. I didn't know where I was going. I couldn't go to anyone that I knew, to Charlie or to Thomas. That would only put them in danger. I couldn't go to the reservation. I had left Jacob, and I wouldn't go back to him just because I couldn't be with Edward anymore. I would just walk. If Victoria found me, so be it. I didn't deserve to live. I didn't belong anywhere. I didn't belong with anyone.

I don't know how long I was walking before I heard footsteps behind me. I stopped walking, but I didn't turn around. Was this it? Was this the end of my life? Would Edward know how much I loved him? Would it hurt?

"Bella! Thank God you're all right!" Edward said, as his arms wrapped me tightly. "What were you thinking, leaving like that?" If he could cry, he would have been. He spun me around and looked into my eyes. "Bella, why? Why did you leave? Why did you leave me? What did I do? Bella, I love you so much. Please tell me. What did I do to make you leave?" I started crying, and my legs went floppy. He sank to the ground and pulled me into his lap. He held me close to him. He held me until I stopped crying. "Can you talk now?" I nodded. "Why did you leave? Did I do something wrong?" I shook my head. "Can you tell me what happened?"

"I'm so sorry, Edward. I'm so sorry." I cried, the tears starting up again.

"Sorry for what, love?" he asked.

"For what happened. I never meant for it to happen that way."

"Bella, it's okay. I could've stopped it if I'd have wanted to stop it."

"But you are against doing anything sexual before marriage. I pushed things way too far. I just meant to hold you and kiss you, but I let my feelings get out of control. I took advantage of you being there, and I did something that was totally inappropriate."

"Bella, I was a little uncomfortable being shirtless around you, but then I figured that I've gone swimming with you, and I've been shirtless around you before. So, I let you take off my shirt. I've got to tell you that when you kissed me on my neck and clavicles, it was so erotic. I enjoyed that very much, probably much more than I should have. I really like that, and I think that I'd like for you to do that again. Then, Bella, the rest, when you started to move against me, I started to pull away and to stop you, but I realized that you needed it. You needed to have that release, and you needed for me to be able to give it to you. Bella, that doesn't make you a bad person. I don't hold it against you that you need sexual stimulation. Bella, I'm sure that once you've experienced it for the first time, you develop a need to continue having that kind of release."

"Then you're not upset with me? You're not mad that I took advantage of you?"

"Bella, do you think that you could really make me do something that I don't want to do?"

"Well, I don't know. I would hope that you would consider my opinion on whatever it was and that if I wanted it bad enough, you would do it even if you didn't want to do it if it didn't conflict with your morals."

"Okay, you have a point. I would definitely consider doing something that I didn't want to do under those circumstances."

"If you aren't angry or disappointed in what I did, why did you leave me alone? I thought that you weren't going to leave me. When I woke up, I thought that you were so disgusted with me that you couldn't face me, what with your whole family knowing what I did and all."

"Number one, I'm not angry or disgusted with you. Number two, Carlisle needed some help with Jacob. He asked me to help him. I should have left you a note that I was going to help him. I'm sorry that I left you without letting you know where I was going. And finally, number three, my family doesn't know what happened in our room. All that they know is that you had an orgasm. They don't know how it happened, and they won't find out from me."

"Yeah, but they know. How will I be able to face them again, especially Emmett? He will make such a big deal out of this."

"Bella, do you think that they expect you to still be a virgin? You've been married for 4 years. Not even I'm that naive, Bella. I know that you've had sex with Jacob."

"I'm so sorry, Edward."

"Why are you sorry?"

"Because I didn't wait on you."

"Bella, you were married. I think that you're supposed to have sex when you're married."

"No, I mean that I didn't wait on you to come back for me to get married. I never should've married Jacob."

"Bella, how were you supposed to know that I would come back? For all you knew, I wasn't ever coming back. Honestly, I wasn't coming back. Alice set me up. She didn't tell me that you were in my class."

"You weren't coming back. You had no intention of finding me? Alice forced you to get back together with me?"

"Bella, yes, I mean, I'm sorry. I thought that by being with me, I would put you in danger. Look what has happened. Victoria has decided to come after you. You are in danger because I've come back into your life. Jacob was right. I'm not good for you, but I'm not able to keep away from you any more. As soon as I saw you, I knew it. I love you so much Bella. I'll go to the ends of the earth to protect you."

"I love you, too, Edward."

"Oh, isn't that so sweet," I heard as I was thrown forward to the ground. As I looked up to see what was happening, I saw that Edward was pinned, face down, with his left arm being pulled at a strange angle behind his back. Before I knew what was happening, I heard a ripping sound, and the woman who I assumed to be Victoria had pulled his arm off and tossed it into the woods. Edward was yelling for Alice and Jasper as she reached out to grab his other arm and ripped it off, throwing it into the woods. Now that Edward was disabled, Victoria propped him up against a tree. The she rambled over to me. I tried to back away from her, but it was to no avail. She pulled me up by my shirt. "I've waited a long time for this. Now it is my turn. I'm going to finish what my James started, and you, Edward, are going to watch."


	8. Chapter 8

**Disclaimer: Stephenie Meyer owns all.**

**Chapter 8: Changes**

I knew that the end was near. Victoria had me in her arms, and Edward was against the tree, helpless. She extended my neck to the side and lowered her head to my neck. I locked eyes with Edward. I mouthed, "I love you," as I felt her teeth enter my neck. I felt a sharp pain as she started drinking from me, and I heard Edward shout, "No!" I kept my eyes locked on his as I began to get light headed and dizzy. My eyelids began to get heavy, and I grew limp in Victoria's arms. Then, I was falling again. I felt the wind leave my lungs as I hit the ground. I lay there, listening to the commotion going on around me. I felt pain beginning to get worse at my neck, a burning pain that was getting more intense with every second. It was taking away the lethargy and bringing me back to full alertness. I looked up and saw Alice and Jasper holding Victoria down. Jasper was ripping off her arms and legs. Alice held her down while Jasper tore off her head. Then Alice went into the woods and found Edward's arms. She held one in place to start it reattaching. Edward had lost a great deal of venom while he had been armless, and the arm wasn't reattaching very well. He asked Alice to help him get to me. She helped him crawl to me, him on his knees.

"Oh, Bella, love, I'm so sorry! I should have been paying more attention! Bella! Can you hear me? Oh My God! Alice, get her to Carlisle. He's got to help her. He's got to suck out the venom. I'm not strong enough to do it. I've lost to much venom. Alice, go!"

Alice reached under me to pick me up. As soon as she moved me, I screamed in pain. I couldn't stand the agony that was searing my neck and was now moving down into my chest as I was moved. Alice looked at me with a knowing look on her face, but she began to run through the woods, making her way between the trees. After what couldn't have been a minute, Alice began to call out to Emmett and Rosalie. As we broke through the wall of trees surrounding the house, Emmett met us coming out of the house. Alice spoke in her vampire voice, and Emmett sped off into the woods the way that we had come out. We were met inside the door by Esme who had a look of severe distress on her face. She stood back as Alice bounded up the stairs towards Carlisle's office. Seth, who was sitting in the living room, followed Alice up the stairs. He stood in the doorway, watching and listening.

Carlisle looked up as we entered the room with a look of despair on his face. He motioned for Alice to put me on the couch. I cried out in pain as she lowered me onto the soft cushions. I looked over at Jacob who was resting on the exam table across the room. He looked like hell made over. I only hoped that I looked better. I knew by the look on first Alice's, then Esme's, and now Carlisle's faces that there was no hope for me. I knew that Edward's hope of reversing the venom was pointless. I was going to change if I lived at all. I was burning into my arms, now. Carlisle knelt by the couch. "Am I going to survive?" I managed to ask him? "Will I survive to be with Edward?"

"Bella, you don't have enough blood to suck out the venom. You are changing, and there is nothing that we can do to reverse it. We'll be with you the whole time. We love you, Bella," Carlisle said. I was starting to burn up in my head and down into my stomach. It was hard not to cry out. I was trying not to. They knew that I was burning, and I didn't need to add to their distress. "Alice, why don't you take her to Edward's bed. She'll be more comfortable there." Alice picked me up again. I cried out with the pain, and I buried my head in her shoulder. Esme went ahead of her and pulled down the blankets and sheets. Alice laid me down on the bed. I cried out a final time, as I settled down into the mattress. Seth had followed Alice to Edward's room, and he stood in the doorway.

"What happened to her?" he asked Alice.

"Victoria attacked them while they were talking in the woods," Alice said. "She disabled Edward, and then she attacked Bella. She drank from Bella."

"So this is the way that you protect her? She should have come to the reservation. We would have protected her. We wouldn't have let this happen to her."

"Do you think that we're happy that this happened? We love Bella. We would never knowingly put her in danger," Alice said.

"A fine lot of good that does her now!" Seth said.

"Where's Bella?" I heard Edward yell from downstairs.

"She's in your room," Alice said, answering him. I heard his footsteps on the stairs as he came upstairs to see me.

"Why is she there? Why isn't she in Carlisle's office?" Edward asked.

"Edward, there wasn't anything that I could do to remove the venom. She had lost too much blood. It would have killed her for me to have tried to remove the venom. She is changing. There is nothing that we can do but support her."

I sensed that he had come into the room. He walked up to the bed and climbed onto it to sit beside me. He was soon followed by Jasper who tried to calm me. It wasn't long before Jasper had to leave the room because of the pain that I was experiencing. By now, the pain was from head to toe. I was burning all over, like I was on fire. It was agonizing pain, not like any pain that I'd ever experienced before. I thought that it had hurt when James had bitten me. That was nothing compared to this. I kept my eyes shut and my breathing in short pants, hoping that the pain would be less if I didn't move my body to take deep breaths. I could hear Seth arguing with Carlisle in the background. I could also hear Edward soft voice telling me that he was with me, beside me, and that he wasn't going to leave me. Then I heard him start to hum my lullaby. I began to try to focus my mind on his voice. As he would finish humming one song, he would start another. The burning wasn't affected, but the serenity of his voice was soothing and calming. As seconds turned into minutes and minutes turned into hours, he stayed by my side, never leaving me for an instant. Others would come and go, speaking to him silently in their minds, but he never quit humming to me. As time went on, the pain began to intensify. Then suddenly, I realized that I had no pain in my feet or my hands. I was stunned. My fingers were pain free. Soon, my elbows and knees joined my hands and feet in being pain free. I didn't know what had changed. Was I doing something differently? Was it something that Edward was doing? I didn't have a clue. As the pain free areas increased to include my shoulders and hips, and then my pelvis and stomach, I felt as if all of the pain from those areas had congealed into my heart. My heart was racing and on fire. I knew that I couldn't stand this burning any longer. It was going to take my life. And then it happened. My heart quit beating. The fire went away. I was alive no longer.

Edward's humming stopped. I heard others breathing in the room. I slowly opened my eyes. It was bright in the room, almost too bright. I was looking at Edward, but he didn't look like the Edward that I knew. He was much more amazing. He was beautiful. His hair wasn't just bronze like I thought. It was full of colors, from bronze to red to brown to every color in between. His eyes were also full of color, amber and gold, each weaved into an intricate pattern. His skin was almost glowing. It was full of different colors, each cell spectacular in its own design. I moved to kiss him, and I realized that I moved too fast. I bumped into him instead of kissing him. "Oops," I said, and Emmett laughed. Edward leaned in and kissed me. It felt wonderful. I never knew that a kiss could feel so exhilarating. I never wanted to let him go. "I always want to wake up that way," I said.

"You won't ever wake up again, love," Edward said, taking me into his arms. "You won't sleep."

"Then I don't ever want to stop doing that," I said.

"Your wish is my command," Edward said, kissing me again. I reached to pull him closer. This time my arms worked like I wanted them to.

"Hi, Bella, remember us?" I heard Alice call from inside the room.

I broke the kiss and sat up in the bed. I looked around and saw my family standing there, Carlisle and Esme, Alice and Jasper, and Emmett and Rosalie. They were all looking at me like I was an animal in the zoo on display. "How are you feeling?" Carlisle asked.

"I'm a little sensory overloaded right now. You are all so beautiful. I always thought that you were beautiful, but now, you are honestly angelic. You are all flawless. Your voices are in perfect pitch and rhythm. I can't believe that I didn't see it all before."

"All of your senses become heightened when you change," Carlisle said. "How is your throat? Are you hungry? Are you burning?"

I thought about his question. I wasn't really hungry, and my throat wasn't really burning. "No, not really. I don't think so."

"I don't sense that she is hungry," Jasper said. "Amazing."

"Love, let's see how coordinated you are," Edward said. He gave me his hand and helped me out of the bed. Then he walked with me downstairs. I seemed to be able to walk fine, though a little fast for the average human. We sat down on the couch, and the rest of the family took seats as well.

"Welcome to the family, officially," Emmett said. "Now you're officially my little sister."

"Thank you, I think. What are we going to do now?" I asked.

"What do you mean?" Esme asked.

"Well, I guess what I mean is, are we going to have to move? Can we stay? Is the treaty okay? Am I going to have to die? Basically, what are we going to have to do now?"

"We really haven't discussed it. The treaty is fine. One of us did not change you. The treaty is specifically that none of us bite any human. Seth took Jake home on the day that you were bitten. The packs know that you've been changed and that we didn't do it. As far as whether we need to fake your death and leave town, I don't really know. Right now, you don't seem to have a very strong blood lust. At least, your hunger isn't as strong as it usually is for a newborn," Carlisle said.

"Why don't we go out into the woods and hunt. Let's see how you do when confronted by blood," Edward said.

"Okay, I'm game," I said. We got up and headed towards the door.

"Can I come, too," Alice asked.

"Fine by me," I said. Alice joined us, and the three of us walked into the backyard. We ran to the river that ran through the backyard. Edward and Alice jumped it without thinking about it. I stopped when I got to it. Edward turned around and looked at me.

"Love, you can easily jump it. Just get a couple of steps of a running start and jump. You will make it with room to spare. Trust me." I did as he said, and when I jumped, I sailed over his head.

"Oops. I guess that I have to learn my own strength," I laughed. He and Alice laughed with me.

"Yeah, you are the strongest one of us now. You will have to remember that for a while, I'm afraid," Edward said. "You're even stronger than Emmett."

"You're kidding, right?" I asked.

"Nope, he isn't. You're definitely the strongest one of all of us," Alice said.

"Wow, how cool is that!" I said, laughing. "Emmett had better not make fun of me, now." I ran after them into the forest. We ran for several minutes. I realized that I could see everything while I ran, each individual leaf, twig, flower, and sprout. I was amazed with the clarity with which I could see everything. Eventually, Edward and Alice stopped running. I almost ran into them because I was distracted by all of the amazing sights that I was experiencing.

"Bella, stop. What do you smell?" Edward asked.

I stopped and took a deep breath. I didn't know what it was, but there was an odor to the left of me. I turned that way and took another deep breath. It made my throat scratchy. I could tell a difference in the way my throat felt. It didn't burn, but it was uncomfortable. "That way, I smell something. I don't know what it is, but it makes my throat uncomfortable."

"It is a small group of deer. There are three of them. Come on, let's get a little bit closer." He led the way towards the deer. We stopped within sight of them. "Now, don't think about it, love. Just breathe in the scent and let your instincts take over."

I took a deep breath, and I smelled the blood. I could hear the heartbeats. I crouched down and pounced on the nearest deer. I jerked it to the ground and took a deep breath. I smelled the blood strongest in the neck, so I leaned into the neck of the deer and bit into the neck. The blood ran into my mouth, and I swallowed it in gulps. It tasted a little sour, but it wasn't bad. Some of it ran over my lips and down my neck onto my shirt. I drank until it ran dry. When I looked up, Edward and Alice were looking at me with big smiles on their faces. Edward walked up to me and licked the blood from my face and neck. Then he gave me a big kiss. I kissed him back, and instead of his lips being cold and hard, I found that they were warm and soft and very kissable. I pulled him to me, and the rest of him was also warm and soft as well, well, almost all of him. There was one rather large part of him that was hard and definitely making its presence known. I pressed into him harder. I deepened my kisses. Somewhere in my subconscious, I realized that Alice left to give us some privacy.

Edward moved us away from my first kill and took us both to the ground. He was wearing a T-shirt which I immediately removed. Then I removed my own. I continued to kiss him as I ran my hands up and down his back. He was also rubbing his hands on my back. I pulled away from him, and took his hands in my own. I placed his hands on my breasts, and as he started to pull his hands away, I held them to me. "Edward, please, I want you to touch me. I want your hands on me. I want you to make love to me. I want you to make me yours."

"Bella, you know that it wouldn't be right. You are still married to Jake."

"Edward, I am dead. I am dead to Jake. I am yours for all of eternity. I am ready for you to make me yours, forever. Today, I was born to you. Today, I want you to make me yours. Today, I want to be joined with you for eternity."

Edward leaned to kiss me. He quickly deepened the kiss then moved the kiss down to my neck and onto my shoulders. I ran my fingers through his hair, then down his back, and finally onto his butt. I pulled him into me, and he groaned. He continued to kiss down onto my chest, his hand caressing my breast. He took the other breast into his mouth, kissing and sucking on the nipple, teasing it with his teeth. I groaned and pressed my chest into his mouth, encouraging him to continue. I felt myself growing wet. Edward groaned and reached down to my jeans. He quickly unbuttoned them and pushed them down. I reached down and made quick work of his jeans. The only thing separating us was our underwear. I reached down and lowered his boxers. Then I lowered my panties. I looked at him, in all of his glory. He was beautiful. I could tell that he was looking at me at the same time. I hoped that I was satisfactory to him. I leaned into him and kissed him again. I held him, my body against his. I could feel him against me, and I parted my legs to let him lie between them. I felt him break away from the kiss, and I was afraid that he was going to leave, but instead, he started kissing me on the neck. He moved so that his member was near my entrance. "I've never done this. I don't know how," he whispered.

I moved so that his tip was at my entrance. "Just move, my love. You won't hurt me." He gently pressed forward, and he entered me. The feeling of him inside me, filling me was enough to send me over the edge. I clenched down on him, and as he moved inside of me, he filled me with his seed. Then he held me close to him, and I held him close to me, neither of us willing to let the other go. After several minutes, I looked into Edward's eyes and said, "I love you so much. Promise me never to leave my side for eternity. Promise to be my mate until the day that I burn."

Edward took my face into his hands and said, "Bella, will you marry me? Will you be my wife from now until eternity? Will you be by my side from now until the day that I burn?"

"Yes, I will, Edward. Forever." I reached up and kissed him again. Our arms held each other, exploring every nook and cranny of our lover. We made love a second time as the day went on, each of us needing to be one with the other. When night fell, we stood and gathered our clothes, dressing quietly. We headed back to the house, hand in hand, just walking, neither of us in a hurry, each of us still enjoying our private time together. When we reached the river, we heard the family's conversation.

"If we do move, we need to go to a sparsely populated place so Bella won't be tempted by blood lust," Carlisle said.

"You should have seen her. She really did good with the deer. She wasn't in any real blood lust," Alice said. "She just took it as if she's been doing it for months, a little messy, but other than that, it was really a clean kill."

"Well, maybe we can expose her indirectly to some human blood," Carlisle said. "If she does well, then maybe we can move to another town and start over."

"What about her med school? She worked so hard to get there," Esme said. "I hate that she's going to have to give that up."

Edward looked at me, and I shrugged. I kissed him again, and together, we jumped the river. We slowly walked up to the house. When we reached the patio, all talking stopped. Edward opened the door, and we walked in. Everyone was gathered in the living room. All eyes turned to me as we entered the room.

"Well, how did it go?" Carlisle asked.

"It went well. It didn't taste so bad," I said.

"She is being modest. She did really good. She was able to smell the deer about a half mile away. Then she closed on the group and took down the one that she was aiming at. She figured out how to make the kill and drink the blood," Edward said.

"I didn't do that good. I got it on my shirt," I said.

"Emmett still gets it on his shirt," Rosalie said, laughing.

"I want to leave. I want to be dead. I want to start over and begin a new life with my new family," I blurted out. The room went silent. Everyone stared at me.

"Are you sure, love? That would be an irreversible step," Edward said taking me into his arms. "What about Charlie?"

"I can't see Charlie like this. He would know there is a difference. I can't risk that. You are my family now. It is time to say good-bye to my old life. It is dead to me. Now is the time for me to be dead to it."

"Okay, let's go to Wisconsin. It has been, what, about 60 years since we've lived there," Carlisle said.

"Black River Falls, here we come," Emmett said. "They have some of the best wolf around."

"I'll go tomorrow and get the house in order," Esme said.

"We'll start packing and get the moving vans organized," Alice said, motioning to herself and Rose.

"What paperwork will we want on Bella? What name will you be using? What age will we be starting out?" Jasper asked.

"Well, let's start you out as sophomores and juniors. Bella, if she is as tolerant around humans as she seems to be around animals, will join the sophomores. What name do you want, Bella?"

"Bella Hale, I think. I want to be able to date Edward, just like Rosalie and Alice date their mates. Oh, by the way, Edward and I want to get married as soon as possible. How will that work? Will I have to be dead first so that Jacob and I aren't married anymore?"

"Bella, Edward, that is wonderful! I'm so happy for you," Esme cried out, getting up to come and hug both of us. "But you have to admit, it's about time."

"Bella, love, you are already dead. It won't matter to society whether there is a death certificate filed with the city of Forks or not as to when we can get married. We don't maintain marriage licenses for our weddings," Edward said to me.

"I can marry you two tonight if you want me to," Carlisle said. I looked at Edward, and he looked at me. I nodded to him, and he kissed me. I stood, and he joined me next to the fireplace. The rest of the family stood to either side of us, the girls on my side, and the guys beside Edward. Carlisle stood in front of us.

"We are gathered here today to witness the joining together in holy matrimony of Edward and Bella. They have faced many hardships on their journey to find each other, but tonight, they stand together before God and those present here to be wed. If anyone has any reason why these two should not be joined together, let them speak now or forever hold their peace.

"Edward, do you take Bella to be your lawfully wedded wife? To have and to hold, through richer or poorer, through sickness and in health, forsaking all others, until death you do part?"

"I do." Edward said.

"Bella, do you take Edward to be your lawfully wedded husband? To have and to hold, through richer or poorer, through sickness and in health, forsaking all others, until death you do part?"

"I do." I said.

"I know that you don't have rings, and normally, we don't really wear rings, so I'll skip that part of the ceremony. Do you wish to say anything to each other at this time?"  
"Bella, I have loved you from almost the first time that I saw you. You sang to me, but I couldn't take your blood. You intrigued me, and I discovered that I loved you, your mind and your soul. I've waited for this day for my whole life, though I didn't always know that you were what I was waiting on. You've made me the happiest man in the world today. If I were to burn today, I would leave this world a happy man."

"Edward, I have loved you since I've known you. When you left me, my life went on automatic control. I wasn't living. Now that you've been back, I'm living again. My life has meaning again. Today is the first day of forever with you. I will never leave your side again. I will never let you leave my side again. We are bound like no one before us has ever been bound. The day that your life ends, mine ends, too. Edward, you are my life."

"Where Edward and Bella have spoken their vows to each other and in front of these witnesses and God above, I now pronounce them husband and wife. Edward, you may kiss your bride." I looked at Edward, and he ever so gently placed his hands on my face, pulling it to his lips where he very gently kissed me. It was the most passionate kiss that I'd ever experienced. I melted into him, and he wrapped his arms around me, holding me up.

When he broke the kiss, I didn't know if I could stand. He picked me up and carried me upstairs to his room. He kicked the door closed and carried me to the bed. I heard the downstairs door open and then close. Everyone had left the house. Edward kissed me again. Then he took my shirt and pulled it up and over my head. He leaned over and started kissing my breasts. He would go from one to the other, sucking, and then nibbling on my nipples. He took his hands and started caressing my breasts, while his mouth started kissing me down my stomach, towards my navel. I pulled him back up to my mouth and kissed him as I took off his shirt, leaving his chest bare. I then unbuttoned his pants and pushed them down. I sat up and pulled down his boxers, releasing him from the confines of them. Then he took my pants and panties off, and we fell back onto the bed, naked, holding each other as close as we could get. Our hands explored and caressed. I reached down and took him in my hand, stroking him several times. Then I leaned over and took him into my mouth. He groaned, and lifted his hips, pushing himself deeper into my mouth. I moved my mouth up and down his length, using my tongue to lick over his head when I moved up. He groaned again. Soon, he grabbed my head and started pushing me faster. He was moving me and thrusting into my mouth. Then I felt him starting to throb in the base. It wasn't long before he was spilling into my mouth and calling my name. I sucked him and swallowed as fast as he was shooting into my throat. When he was done, he collapsed onto the bed, breathing hard.

I went up to his face and kissed him. "Did you like that, my love?" I asked him.

"Oh God! Bella! That was utterly amazing. I don't even want to know how you learned to do that, do I?" he asked me.

"Edward, that was the first time that I've ever done that," I said. "I've never trusted anyone else enough to do that to them."

"Well, I wouldn't mind if you would do that again, sometime in the future."

"I would love to, my husband." We stayed together, holding each other, making love with each other, talking, exploring each other, and experimenting with each other, trying things that we'd always wanted to try to do, things that we'd dreamed about doing with each other. We only stopped when we heard the family coming back. The first 24 hours that I'd spent as a vampire, I had to admit, were the most amazing 24 hours of my entire existence.

Regretfully, we got up and got dressed. We made our way downstairs. Esme was upstairs packing her suitcase for a 10 o'clock plane to Wisconsin. Jasper had left for Seattle to take care of the paperwork with our attorney, J. Jenks. Alice and Rose had started packing their rooms. Carlisle was on the phone, working on my death. Edward and I sat down in his office. When Carlisle got off of the phone, he told us of a Jane Doe who had been brought into the morgue last night in Port Orleans. He and Edward would borrow the body. "Bella" would have a fiery automobile accident this evening.

During the meantime, Edward and I decided to go for a ride into town. We started the ride with the windows up. He left the vent in the car open so that the outside air would circulate throughout the inside space. I could smell the humans, but there wasn't some big calling to me. Then Edward cracked the window on his side of the car. Although the smell was stronger, there wasn't really any burning to speak of in my throat. He rolled the windows down all of the way. I didn't have any problems. I was amazed, but Edward was stunned. He said that his senses smelled a group of humans whose scent was strong. While it didn't make his throat burn, he would have expected a newborn to be going mad with blood lust. I told him that I could smell it, but it held no bigger attraction for me than the deer did yesterday afternoon.

After our drive, Edward took me back home. He told me that I should call Charlie. He thought that I should say my good-bye to him. I thought about it, and I realized that the last things that I had said to Charlie were harsh. I didn't want him thinking that I had died mad at him. I took my cell phone and made one of my final calls.

"Forks Police, how may I direct your call?" the voice that answered the phone said.

"Hi, this is Bella. Is Dad in?"  
"Yeah, Bella. Hold on." The elevator music began to play in the background. Why did they call it elevator music when it played on the telephone? My mind wandered as I thought about what I didn't want to do.

"Hi, Bells. How are you?" he asked stiffly.

"Dad, I just wanted to say that I'm sorry for the way that I acted the last time that we talked. I was upset, and I was scared, and I over reacted. I know that you only had my best interest at heart. You have always had my best interest at heart."

"Bella, honey, I'm sorry, too. You just took me by surprise. It's hard for me to remember that you are an adult now, not my little girl."

"Oh Daddy, I'll always be your little girl, no matter how old I get, and you'll always be my Daddy. Got it."

"Yeah, I got it. How are things between you and Edward?"

"They're good. I love him, Dad. I've always loved him. I'm going to ask Jacob for a divorce. I'm going back to Seattle tonight. Things here have been taken care of. Have you spoken to Jake or Billy?"

"I've talked to Billy. He said that Jacob is healing well, physically, that is. He said that he is really upset that you have left him. The whole reservation knows that you've left him. They are supporting Jacob. I don't think that you need to go there without an escort. If you want to go get anything out of your house, I'll go with you."

"Thanks, Dad. That means a lot to me, but I'll worry about that later. Right now, I need to get on the road. Just know that I love you Dad, Bye." Edward took me into his arms. I buried my head into his shoulder. I would be crying if I could have. He held me close, and I dry sobbed.

"Are you sure this is what you want. It's not too late to stop it," Edward whispered in my ear.

"I'm sure. I need to call Jacob."

"Do you want me to leave?"

"No, you're my husband. I want you to sit here beside me and hold my hand." I dialed Jake's cell phone number. At first I didn't think that he was going to answer it, but then I it click on. He didn't say anything. "Jake, I know that you're there. Are you going to speak to me?" No answer. "Okay, then I'm just going to talk. Thank you for taking care of me for the past 5 years. I'm sorry that things turned out this way. Jake, I'm going to need for you and Billy to take care of Charlie for me. There's going to be an accident tonight on my way back to Seattle. I'm going to be killed and burned beyond recognition. We'll be leaving within the next 2-3 days. Bye Jake. I'm sorry."

"Wait, don't hang up." Jake said as I removed the phone from my ear.

"What?"

"Where are you going?"

"I can't tell you that. Just know that I'll be okay. I'll be with my family."

"You're a leach now?"

"Yes, Victoria bit me before we killed her."

"Then we're officially over."

"Yes, Jake. Just take care of Charlie for me, please."

"We will. Bye Bella."

"Bye."

"That went well," Edward said. "Now what?"

"I have to call Thomas," I said. "I promised him that I'd tell him good-bye." I took the phone and pressed Thomas's number.

"Hello, Bella. How are you? Long time no talk."

"Hi, Thomas."

"Bella, what's wrong? Hold on, let me step outside. Okay. I was in lab. When are you coming back?"

"I'm not, Thomas. We're leaving."

"Oh, Bella, I'm going to miss you."

"Thomas, I'm sorry. I'm going to die tonight."

"Bella, NO!" I could hear him starting to cry.

"It's better this way, Thomas. I've been changed. Victoria found me."

"You're a ..."

"Yes, I'm a vampire, now. Look, I've got to go. I just wanted to tell you good luck. Good-bye, Thomas." I hung up the phone. I laid back into Edward's arms. He just held me until Carlisle came down and told Edward that it was time to go. I gave Edward my purse and my phone to leave in my car. He picked up my bookbag as well. Alice came down and took me by the hand. I went upstairs with her and helped her pack hers and Jasper's room. Then we went into Carlisle's and Esme's room. When we finished there, we went into Edward's and my room. We packed everything, except a change of clothes for Edward and myself. We packed each room in turn. Emmett returned with a moving van, and he began moving the boxes. The furniture would be covered and left in the home for when we came back. Jasper returned with new manila envelopes with our new papers in them.

The later it got, the more worried I became. After we got Edward's piano and the boxes loaded, we sat around and waited on them to return. Jasper kept sending calming waves towards me. Alice came and sat down beside me. She opened her laptop and went to some of her favorite shopping pages. We looked at many designer outfits, as I had no wardrobe to speak of. All of my clothes in Seattle would be disposed of by Charlie or Jake, and my clothes at Jakes were destroyed by Victoria. I didn't argue too much as she ordered designer jeans. They were jeans, after all. She did a rather decent job, and I had to admit that this was much easier than going shopping with her. Then she went to a Victoria's Secret page. She ordered me so much lingerie that I didn't know when I'd be able to wear it all. She told me not to worry that Edward would rip as much of it off of me as he took off of me. Emmett started to laugh. I looked at him, and he shut his mouth, for all of a second.

"So how was Edward for his first time?" Emmett asked. The others turned to me, questions in their eyes.

"Noneya," I said.

"Oh, come on. I've waited over 70 years for Edward to lose his virginity. You've got to tell us how bad it was," Emmett said.

"What makes you think I was bad," Edward said from the doorway. Emmett jumped about a foot into the air. Edward burst out laughing.

"Nobody is good their first time," Emmett said.

"Well, I hate to dispute that, but Edward was compassionate, loving, gentle, and very good at what he was doing."

"Really?" Emmett said.

"Yes really. Now that is the only information that you will ever get. Our relationship is between us. You are not invited to participate."

It was then that the phone rang. Carlisle answered it. "Hello. Hi Charlie. How are you?" Everyone in the room got quiet and looked at me. Edward came over and took me into his arms. "What! Oh my God! Charlie! Are they sure it was her? Do they know what happened? Where are you? I'm coming right over." He hung up the phone.

"How is he?" I asked in a whispered voice.

"He's how you would expect him to be, Bella. He's torn up. I'm going to go give him a sedative to help him rest," Carlisle said.

"When do we leave?" I asked.

"Well, your funeral is going to be in 2 days in all likelihood. I'm sure that Carlisle is going to want to go. I should go, and probably Alice. Emmett and Rose can stay here with you. We'll leave afterwards."

"Okay, but I don't want you and Jacob fighting if he is there," I said. Edward nodded. We had done it. My life was over here in Forks. I was a vampire, and I was Edward's. We were getting ready to begin our new lives together.


	9. Chapter 9

**Disclaimer: Stephenie Meyer owns all.**

**Chapter 9: The End and the Beginning**

The day of my funeral arrived. The house was quiet. Emmett and Rosalie had left for Black River Falls, Emmett driving the moving van and towing his jeep, and Rosalie driving her BMW M3. That just left the five of us: Carlisle, Jasper, Alice, Edward, and myself. I knew that everyone was going to go to my funeral. The plan was to leave me home alone. I, however, had other plans. I pulled Alice aside first thing this morning and told her my plan. I wanted to go to my funeral. I needed to see Charlie before I left. I needed to know that he would be all right. I needed her help to disguise me enough that I could pass scrutiny. She was initially against the idea, but when she saw how determined I was to go, she finally relented, saying that Edward was going to kill us both.

Alice broke away from the family and went to Port Orleans to get the supplies that she would need to help me accomplish my mission. When she returned carrying several bags, I willingly followed her upstairs to the abandoned bathroom. She did her thing, playing Bella Barbie to the umpteenth degree. I watched in the mirror as she transformed me from a vampire of 21 years old to an old woman in her mid-fifties. I couldn't even recognize myself. My hair was salt and pepper and hung down to my mid-back. My eyes were hallow and deep with crows feet at the outer edges. My face had wrinkles, both on my forehead and around my mouth. My neck was floppy, just a little bit so, enough to give me age, but not make me too old. I would be wearing a long sleeved dress, so Alice didn't have to bother to make my upper arms floppy, though she did give me leggings too big for my legs to make them appear less toned than they were in reality. By the time that she was through with me, I was sure that not even Edward would recognize me if not for my scent. Being that my scent was different now that I was a vampire, Alice assured me that none of the wolves would recognize me either.

As I descended the stairs, making sure not to trip or fall as an old lady in her 50's would decidedly do, Carlisle, Edward and Jasper looked up. The look of surprise on their faces was indicative of the perfection of the job that Alice did. "What in the world is going on?" Edward asked when he finally found his tongue?

"I want to go to my funeral," I said. "I need to see Charlie. I need to know that he is being taken care of."

"Bella, love, you know that that isn't a good idea. You have never been exposed to that many humans in such a crowded space before," Edward said.

"Well, if I lose control, I have four wonderful, strong, vampires who will carry me out of the room."

"I'm not going to win this one, am I?" Edward asked. I shook my head. He glanced at his watch, and said, "Well, the rest of us should go and get ready."

It only took them fifteen minutes to dress, and they gathered with me at the door. "I assume that you have a cover story?" Edward asked. I shook my head. I hadn't thought of that.

"She is Esme's aunt who has been visiting and got to know Bella while she was staying here," Alice said with confidence in her voice. "She is Aunt Caroline."

"Okay, everybody, Aunt Caroline, let's load up," Edward said. Everyone got into Carlisle's Cadillac, me taking shotgun. As Carlisle drove to the church, I worried about Charlie. I needed him to be okay.

When we arrived at the church, the parking lot was full. We parked across the street, on the side of the road. Carlisle opened the door for me and gave me his hand to assist me out of the car. There were several of the La Push boys on the outside of the church. They stared at us with hatred in their eyes. They started to approach us when Seth stepped out of nowhere and held them back. He walked up to us and said, "Why are you here?"

"To say good-bye to Bella," Alice said.

"Then why don't you go back to your house so that you can tell her?" Seth hissed under his breath.

"We're here for the same reason that you're here, to maintain appearances. It would be wrong for me to miss my lover's funeral. Everyone knows that she left Jake for me. Everyone expects me to be here. Besides, Bella needs to see Charlie again," Edward said.

"Fine, make your appearance, but know that I won't let you hurt Jake again," Seth said.

"I have no intention of hurting Jacob," Edward said. "We want to make our appearance and leave. We'll be gone as soon as the funeral is over."

"Where is Bella? You said that she wanted to see Charlie," Seth asked, looking around.

"Right here," I said, holding up my hand. Seth's mouth dropped open. He closed it quickly and shook his head. He walked away, and we walked into the church.

It was already crowded. I looked around at the people. Many of them worked with Charlie and were there to support him. That made me feel better. There were many from the reservation. That was good. Jacob and Billy would be taken care of, despite the fact that I had walked out on them. There were several people that I knew from high school, and there, in the middle of the church, was Thomas. He was holding onto a handkerchief and was dabbing at his eyes. I led my group to the aisle that he was on. When he looked up and saw Edward and Alice, he stood and gave them a hug. He moved over so that we could sit down with him. As the rest of the attendees saw Carlisle, Edward, Alice, and Jasper walk down the aisle towards the middle, they suddenly got quiet and started staring at us. You could tell that we were either not welcomed, or were the topic of conversation.

Soon, the music stopped and the funeral director walked to the front of the room. "Please rise for the family. Everyone stood. I looked into the aisle as Jake pushed Billy down the aisle, followed by Charlie who seemed to be having trouble walking. Sue Clearwater was walking with him, holding his hand which he was gripping for dear life. Renee was nowhere to be seen. Once they were seated, Charlie's head fell into his hands. I could hear his sobs escaping, though he seemed to be trying to hold them back. My dead heart ached for him. I wanted to shed my disguise and go to him, but I knew that I couldn't do that. He had to have this for closure so that he could go on with his life. Burying his daughter was better than thinking that his daughter had abandoned him for a man. Either way, he would never see me again. I could never explain the changes that I'd gone through. Charlie was a trained investigator. He was trained to notice small details. Only a fool would think that he wouldn't notice that I didn't age, that my skin was now hard and cold, that my eyes weren't the right color even though I wore the colored contacts that Alice had given me earlier. Then there was the issue of the Volturi. If Charlie were to ever find out about us, the truth about us, his life would be forfeit. I couldn't take that chance. I loved him too much. So I stayed in my seat.

Brother Weber, my preacher since I could remember, stood and went to the pulpit. He started talking about my childhood, the years that I spent with Renee. Then he spoke of my life here with Charlie. I watched Charlie as he openly sobbed, and Sue took him into her arms, consoling him. Jacob reached over and patted him on the shoulder. Then Brother Weber spoke of my time with Jake. He didn't bring up the incidents of the past two weeks. He left things with me being a special gift of God to those who loved me. Charlie actually smiled at this.

When the ceremony was over, we walked out to the church cemetery. We hung back from the crowd, watching from a distance. Sue kept to Charlie's side the entire time. Jacob held onto Charlie's hand. When the graveside service was over, we turned to leave, but our pathway was blocked by those same La Push boys. Quil pushed Edward, who took a step back. Jasper took a step to place himself between them. We turned to walk around them, but they again stepped between us and the exit of the cemetery.

"We're not here for trouble. We'd like to leave now," Carlisle said.

"Well, isn't that just too bad?" Quil said.

"Why are you trying to cause a scene here of all places?" Carlisle asked.

"He took her away from Jake," Embry.

"Jacob understands," I said. "He's okay with this."

"And just who are you?" Paul said.

"I'm Bella, Quil. Embry, Paul, Jared, you know that Jacob wouldn't want a scene here. Let us leave in peace. Don't make this worse on Charlie."

At that time, Jacob walked up. "What is going on here? You guys have the whole town looking at you. Are you planning on phasing and just having a war right here at my wife's grave? You are causing a spectacle of yourselves." He turned to Carlisle. "Thank you for coming, Carlisle. Edward, take good care of her. Tell her that I'll always love her. Alice, Jasper, right? Thank you for coming. And I don't know you, I'm sorry."

"Jake, it's Bella. I'm sorry for hurting you. Please take care of Charlie. We've got to go now." I reached over and gave him a hug which he returned. Then we walked out of the cemetery and got into Carlisle's car. We drove back to the house. Alice got into her Porsche, Jasper got onto his Ducati, Edward got into his Aston Martin, and I drove the Volvo. We left Forks in a convoy, Edward in the lead. My life in Forks was officially over.

When we pulled into Black River Falls, much sooner that we would have if we'd been human, I let the beautiful landscape take me into its grasp. I don't know where I'd ever seen anywhere more breathtaking. I almost rear-ended Edward's Aston Martin when he slowed down to pull into a long driveway because I was looking behind me at a old covered bridge taken right out of a book of the 100 most beautiful landscapes in America. It was only his loud "Bella" that made me hit the brakes in time to miss him. Carlisle and Alice laughed and said that it had captured their attention the first time that they had seen it, too. I turned into the driveway behind Edward, and he led us to the most beautiful house that I'd ever seen before. I pulled into the Volvo's spot in the multi-car garage. Edward was immediately at my side, opening the door and helping me out of the car.

We walked, hand in hand, to the front of the house. Esme was waiting on the front porch which wrapped around the front and along the sides. I surmised that it went around the whole house. It was spectacular. Esme ran into Carlisle's arms and began to kiss him. I turned away to give them some privacy. Edward pulled me by the hand and led me inside the house. He started on the bottom floor and started showing me around. Everything was already furnished. There was a fully equipped kitchen, though I still didn't understand why. None of us would ever use it. There was a nice sized laundry room, stocked with plenty of bleach. I still hadn't learned to feed without getting blood on my clothes. Edward assured me that I would learn with experience. There was a large dining room with a table large enough to fit all eight of us. This is where family discussions would take place. Then, he brought me into the living room. There was a huge plasma screen TV, all of Emmett's video games already plugged into it. There was a large couch and four love seats. Edward's piano was set off to the side. Finally, there was only one room left on the main floor. Edward had skipped the room twice during his tour. I figured that the room belonged to someone else, but then he stopped in front of it. "This room, love, I kept till last, well, on this floor. I think that this is going to be your favorite room. He opened the door slowly, and stood to the side. I stepped into the room, and it took my breath. The room was full of books, from floor to ceiling, all four walls. There were plush recliners positioned in the middle of the room. I slowly walked around, looking at the books. They were arranged in alphabetical order by author. There were both fiction and non-fiction, old and new.

"How do you have so many new books if you haven't been here in over 60 years?" I asked.

"We have a contract with the local bookstore to buy every new book that is published if it sells over 100,000 copies. Then our housekeeper arranges them for us. The adjoining room is also part of the library."

I was truly amazed. Edward was correct. Besides out bedroom, this room would definitely be my favorite. "Can we do this for all of our houses?" I asked him nicely.

"Anything for you, my love. I'll talk to Carlisle and Esme about it," Edward said. "I'm sure that it won't be a problem."

We then went upstairs. The second floor would belong to Edward and myself, and Jasper and Alice, Edward opened a door and led us into our room. It was larger than our room in Forks by about half. Our clothes were already unpacked and hung neatly in the walk-in closet. My new clothes had arrived before I did. I'm sure that Rosalie and Esme had organized everything for me. I would have to thank them. Our bed was beautiful. It was rustic looking while at the same time grand. I was definitely home. The third floor was shared by Carlisle and Esme, and Emmett and Rosalie. All in all, the house was perfect for the eight of us. I loved it.

When Edward finished showing me around the house, we went back downstairs. We met Carlisle and Esme in the family room. Carlisle was talking to Esme about the funeral and how well I had done. I hadn't really thought about it, but there had been over 100 humans in that church, and I hadn't had the first impulse to drink anyone's blood. I hadn't even felt the first bit of uncomfortable burning in my throat.

"How do you think she would do in school, Edward?" Esme asked.

"I think that she'll do wonderfully. Maybe bored as hell, but fine nonetheless," Edward answered.

"As long as I'm with Edward, I'll do fine. I think," I added.

"Okay then. Let's go get the kids registered," Carlisle said to Esme, taking her by the hand and giving her a kiss.

"Time for shopping. Who's all going?" Alice said, bounding down the stairs.

"Already? What do we need to get?" I asked.

"School supplies! Paper, notebooks, pens, calculators. You know, the usual."

"Okay, I'm in," I said. Edward reached into his wallet and took our a credit card which he handed to me. "Oh no, husband. You've got to come with. That isn't in my name, and my driver's license is in Bella Swan. I can't show that here. I need to go get a new license. In fact, we all do."

Carlisle reached into his manila envelope and gave me a driver's license with the name Bella Hale on it. "Oh, okay. I didn't expect that. Thank you."

"Your credit cards have been ordered, love. They just haven't arrived, yet. Our accounts have already been set up at the local bank. We try to make all of our purchases with credit cards or cash. That way we never have to handle banking in person. There is enough cash stashed in the house to take care of just about anything that you would need to take care of. Remind me later to show you where our stash is."

"You two can talk later. Right now, we need to get to the store before it closes. We'll take two cars and all go," Alice decided. I rode with Edward and Alice and Jasper rode with Rosalie. Edward followed them into town. We stopped at a mom and pop type store. We got several looks as we drove up and the six of us got out of the cars. We walked into the store as couples, hand in hand. Each couple took a buggy. We walked to the school supply aisle. Edward and I got plastic binders with pockets for our 7 classes and college ruled notebook paper to fill them. I got a new backpack, a JanSport, as mine got burned in the fire. We got mechanical pencils and Pilot G-2 pens. Otherwise, we figured that we would wait on a list to see what else we would need. Alice and Jasper got basically the same things that we did. Emmett, though, wanted spiral bound notebooks with pictures on them. Rosalie tried to talk him out of them, but it was no use. She finally gave up when the people in the store started gathering to watch them fight. We went to check out, and the boys all paid. We loaded the bags into the trunks, and then we went to get our new driver's licenses.

When we all walked into the highway patrol office, we again got everyone's attention. The lady behind the desk asked us if she could help us, and Jasper told her that we'd just moved to town, and we needed to get our driver's licenses changed over. She looked at her partner behind the counter and told us that we'd have to pass the written test since we were from out of state. I started to leave, but Alice told me that everything would be alright under her breath. It was the first time that I had ever heard vampire speak. I was thrilled that I could finally understand what everyone was saying. Jasper told her that we were fine with that, and she sat us at six different desks, well apart from each other. She handed us each a test, and I glanced at Alice who appeared to be having a vision. Then I heard her say, "Number 1-C, Number 2-B, Number 3-D, Number 4-A, Number 5-A, Number 6-C, Number 7-C, Number 8-C, Number 9-B, Number 10-C." She went into another trance, and we waited. When she came out of it, she said, "Number 11- D, Number 12-A, Number 13-C, Number 14-B, Number 15-C, Number 16-A, Number 17-A, Number 18-D, Number 19- D, Number 20-C. That's all folks. Remember to turn them in at different times." Alice got up and turned in her test. After about a minute, Edward turned in his test, then Jasper, then Rosalie, then I did, then finally, Emmett turned his in. The lady at the desk graded all of them and seemed surprised when we all scored perfectly on them. She then checked on our driving records, which were also perfect. She seemed disappointed as she made us our new driver's licenses.

When we walked outside, I asked Alice if what she did was a common occurrence. She said that it was so common that she would have to come back with Carlisle and Esme to help them with their tests. We went from there to home. We unloaded our supplies and took them to our rooms. Edward asked me how I was doing, and then he suggested that we go for a hunt. I would want to be satiated tomorrow if we were going to try school.

We asked the others if they wanted to go, and Jasper and Alice joined us. Emmett and Rosalie were still christening their room. The four of us took off into the forest which bordered the back of our house. We ran at a slow pace allowing me to get familiar with the area. After about three miles in, I smelled a particularly sweet odor off to my right. I stopped and asked Edward what that smell was. He told me that it was a wolf. I immediately started heading that way. I got nearer and fell into a crouch, starting to stalk the wolf. As I came over a small ridge, I saw the wolf, but unfortunately, it was a she wolf with 2 pups. I pulled up short. I couldn't feed off of a mother wolf with babies depending on her for food. I swore and turned around, heading back the way that I'd come. When I came back down the hill, Edward asked me what was wrong, and I told him that I couldn't kill a mother and her pups. He looked at me with a stunned expression on his face.

"What?" I asked.

"How were you able to stop? You were stalking for the kill."

"It was a mother with babies. I couldn't kill her and leave the pups without a mother."

"You have amazing control. Not many of us could have done what you just did, no matter how old we were. Once a vampire is stalking for the kill, all reason leaves them. You are a remarkable woman, Bella." Edward walked up to me and pulled me in close for a kiss which I returned, jumping into his arms. I don't know how long we kissed, but we were brought back into reality by Alice clearing her throat.

"Oh, sorry, I sometimes get lost when Edward kisses me. Who am I kidding? I always get lost when Edward kisses me!" Alice and Jasper laughed.

"It is so good to see the two of you back together. When you were apart, it was like a piece of you was missing. Now you are whole again," Jasper said.

"Come on, let's get Bella fed. We'll have a long, boring day ahead of us tomorrow," Alice said. We started back through the woods, and quickly found a group of deer, one for each of us. This time, I managed to feed without getting one drop on my clothes. I felt like I was improving my technique each time that I went out to feed. I was no where near as graceful as Edward, but I was getting better.

After we finished feeding, we decided to race back to the house. Edward won, of course, but I was a surprising second. Alice and Jasper got lost somewhere on the way back. It took them an extra thirty minutes to find their way home. When they finally made it back, they smelled like sex. My vampire senses were developing, and I was learning to identify what the new smells and sounds were. I glanced at Alice with a knowing look and smiled at her. She grinned back at me. She was my best friend, and I was happy to call her sister.

The next morning was overcast, so when Alice showed up in our room and went into our closet to pick out my outfit, I wasn't surprised. I was, however, naked and in bed with Edward at the time. "Alice, do you think that you could pick out my clothes the night before school in the future?" I asked her as I reached across Edward's chest pulling him against my body.

"Sure, no problem. You have time to make love one more time before you have to get ready for school. See ya downstairs in an hour," she said as she laid my clothes on our dresser and left our room, shutting the door after her.

"Well, she did say that we have time for once more," I said, taking him into my hand. He was already hard for me. He rolled me onto my back, and I circled my legs around his hips. He gently entered me, going slowly, taking his time. That just wouldn't do. I wanted him now, faster, deeper. "Edward, harder," I said, bringing my hips up to meet his thrusts. He just moved away and continued to move slowly, taking his time, teasing me. "Edward, I need you, harder, faster. Come on baby, please," I said, trying again to meet him when he entered me. He just grinned and pushed me back onto the bed, taking his time, going slow. This just wouldn't do. I used my newborn strength and turned him over so that I was on top. I held him down, and I started riding him. He took my breasts in his hands and started playing with my nipples. That just added to my need to feel him inside me, deep inside me. I lifted off of him and then pounded myself down, forcing him to go as deeply within me as I could get him. Soon, he was meeting me, and it was great. I felt that little sensation within me begin to grow, starting small, then growing, slowly building until it was encompassing my body. I began to shake, first my legs, then the rest of me. My insides began to clamp down, spasming, grabbing him and pulling him deeper within me. I yelled out his name as my orgasm took me. He grabbed me and rolled me over so that he was on top again, and he started thrusting within me, not letting me come down. He kept my orgasm going; I don't know how long. He finally let me come down, then he started thrusting again. I felt another orgasm rising. I was clutching at him, meeting his body as he entered me.

"Cum for me, love," he whispered in my ear. I exploded for the second time, and as my muscles clenched his wonderfully talented member, he filled me with his cum. I could feel him pulsing within me. He let out a cry, and he collapsed on top of me. We held each other for countless seconds, each of us trying to catch our breaths.

"Wow," I said. I couldn't think of another word at the moment.

"Yeah, wow," he agreed. He kissed me, and then he rolled off of me. "Shower?" he asked, and I nodded. We went together into the shower where we took turns washing each other.

When we went downstairs, the others looked at us like we had won the lottery. "What?" I asked.

"You sounded like you had a good time up there," Alice said.

"Well, we did," I said.

"Do tell," Emmett said. Rosalie smacked him on the back of the head. "Ow, what'd you do that for?"

"Leave them alone. They're finally happy and together. They don't need any of your crap," Rosalie said.

"Thank you," I said. "Oh, and thank you for organizing our room. I meant to tell you yesterday."

"No problem. It's what family does. You are family now, Bella," she said to me, and she walked over to me and gave me a hug. I hugged her back. It was nice to finally have Rosalie on my side.

"Okay, for the first time, we won't all fit into the Volvo. We'll have to take 2 vehicles." We agreed to take the Volvo and Emmett's Jeep. They were the two least conspicuous vehicles that we owned. At least for now, Edward and I would ride alone.

We got our bookbags and loaded up for school. We left a little early so that we could go to the office and get our schedules. We arrived at our new school and parked. So far, so good. Edward opened the door for me, and we all walked to the main office. When we all walked in, the secretary looked like she was going to have a stroke. I felt a wave of calm flow through the room. Edward stepped up to the secretary and said, "We're new here. Our parents came by and registered us yesterday. We're the Cullens and the Hales."

"Oh, yes. Let's see. I have your schedules right here," she said. She handed them to Edward who handed them out to everyone. "I also have your locker assignments." She handed Edward six sheets of paper. Edward looked at them before taking two for us, then he handed the others out. "Your parents didn't pay for the lockers. That will be $10 each. You can bring the money tomorrow."

"That won't be necessary," Edward said, pulling out his wallet. He handed her three twenty dollar bills. She looked somewhat stunned, but she wrote the receipt and handed it to Edward. "Is there anything else?"

"Yes, you will each need to get this slip signed by each of your new teachers and return it at the end of the day," she said, handing Edward six slips of paper. He took them and handed each of us one.

"Do you have any questions?"

"Actually, yes, I do. Since Bella, Alice, and I are in the same courses, all advanced, why are we not in the same classes?" Edward asked.

"We attempt to separate siblings," the secretary said.

"I assume that this school only teaches one advanced class per subject per day. Am I correct in my assumption?" Edward asked.

"Yes, you are," she said.

"Then which of us is getting the advanced class, and which of the other two of us is getting left behind. At our prior school, we were all in the advanced classes as I'm sure that you saw from our transcripts, and we were all pulling hi 98 – 99 averages in the classes. I don't think that it is fair for our educations to be undermined just because you don't like for siblings to be in the same classroom. Trust me, we are not troublemakers. Our education is too important to us. Would you like to speak to our father about this situation?" Edward said.

"I don't think that will be necessary, young man. Put them in the advanced classes. All of them, the older ones as well. Their records speak for themselves," an older man who had come into the room behind us said.

"Thank you, sir," Edward said, turning to offer his hand. "I'm Edward Cullen. This is my sister, Alice Cullen, and my brother, Emmett Cullen. These are my adopted siblings, Jasper Hale, Rosalie Hale, and Bella Hale."

"I am Mr. Barnard, Principal of Black River Falls High School. It is good to meet you all," he said, shaking hands with all of us in turn as Edward introduced us. "I've read all of your records from Denali High School, and you all seem to be model students. We are happy to have you at Black River Falls High School. Emmett, I'd love to see you go out for football."

"Um, I wish that I could, but unfortunately, I injured my knee a time back, and I can't play. I focus on my studies now, hoping for a scholarship to college," Emmett said in what must have been a practiced line.

"I'm so sorry to hear that," Mr. Barnard said. "You would've been a welcomed addition to the team. Ah well, that's where the cookie crumbles. Mrs. Copeland, correct those schedules then get these kids off to class."

"Yes, sir," she said, not hiding the contempt in her voice very well. She went to the computer behind her desk and started typing. We unconsciously paired off and started talking. I didn't know how Alice and Jasper did it. Jasper was pretending to be a Junior, and Alice was pretending to be a Sophomore. They wouldn't have any classes together at all. They would only have time together between classes and at lunch. At least Edward had fixed it so that the three of us would be together all day. So far, I hadn't had any inkling of a thirst for any of the humans that I'd come in contact with today. I was hopeful that this was going to work out without any problems. Mrs. Copeland finally stood and called Edward to the desk. She handed him the corrected schedules. He thanked her and handed them out to the rest of us.

We left the office and headed to the main building. It was divided into two wings, each two stories. The room numbers were prefaced by either a N or a S to indicate which wing the room was in. Our first class was English II in room N201. We made our way to the second floor of the North wing. Room 201 was easy to find. We took a deep breath and opened the door. Class had already started. We walked up to the teacher and handed her the slips of paper for her to sign. I could sense Edward start to tense up. I moved a little bit closer to him. He moved to block my view from the rest of the classroom. The teacher said, "I'm Mrs. Anderson. This is advanced English II. We are currently studying, The Lord of the Flies. Get with someone and borrow their notes for the first five chapters. Now, if you would introduce yourselves to the class, please."

I always hated this part. I couldn't ever think of anything to say, and now it was even harder. What was I supposed to say? _Hi, I'm Bella Hale, and I'm a newborn vampire. Don't worry, though, I've got amazing control. I shouldn't be killing any of you today._ Edward stepped forward a step and said, "I'm Edward Cullen, and this is my sister Alice Cullen. This is my adopted sister Bella Hale. We just moved here from Denali, Alaska." We then moved as one to take seats in the back of the classroom. Edward and I sat across from each other, and Alice sat in front of me, effectively sealing me off from the rest of the room. Edward was still tense, now clenching and unclenching his fists. "What is the matter?" I asked quietly.

"The guys are thinking very inappropriate thoughts of you and Alice," he said.

"Calm down, sweetheart. You know that you are the only man for me. You also know that I can handle myself if one of them tries anything, right?"

"Yes, love, I know that, but to see what they are imagining is not only gross, it is infuriating. It reminds me of Mike Newton and his fantasies. I really didn't think that they could get worse than that."

"Just keep in mind that what they imagine, you get to do."

"Okay, you two. Quiet. I'm trying to listen. I didn't realize how nice and quiet it was when it was only Edward and me," Alice said.

"Ewww, you'll pay for that when you get home, Alice dear," I said, but I took out my notebook and started listening to Mrs. Anderson. She wasn't half bad. She had a handle on Jack and Piggy and the other boys. When the bell rang, we got up, and I immediately took Edward's hand. We walked into the hall, and walked to our second class, Chemistry, in room S106. Once we got downstairs, we ran into Jasper. He gave me a smile and a pat on the shoulder. I smiled back at him.

"Jasper said to tell you that you're doing great," Edward said. I smiled. It was nice to know that I had so much support.

The three of us found room S106 and went in. We walked up to the teacher and handed him our slips for him to sign. He signed them and gave them back to us. "I am Mr. Williams. Which one of you is Alice?" She raised her hand, and Mr. Williams nodded. "Okay, then you must be Isabella."

"Bella," I said.

"Okay, Bella," he said. He went to a cabinet near the door of the classroom and took out three textbooks. He wrote our names in them and handed one to each of us. "Take your seats." We went to the back of the classroom, sitting in the same arrangement as before. He told us that we were on chapter 2, and he began his lecture. We were learning about atoms and molecules,very basic chemistry. Now I understood why Edward always seemed so bored in class. It seemed like an eternity until the bell rung, signaling the end of second period.

Between second and third period was a break. It only lasted twenty minutes, but it lasted twenty minutes. When we got up from our seats, I again took Edward's hand. We started to walk out of the room when a blond girl who was in both of our classes came up to us and said, "Hi, I'm Chelsea. I'd like to welcome you to Black River Falls. I know that you said that your name is Edward. My friends and I'd like to show you around town later. How about it?"

"No thank you, I'm sure that I'll be catching up with all of the work that I've missed because we've started so late. Thanks anyway," Edward said. We walked around her, hand in hand. We followed Alice out to the front of the school where the students gathered for morning break. We looked for the others and found them standing off to the side of the building. We walked over in time to hear Rosalie griping about all of the girls who had already started hitting on Emmett.

"Rosie, sweetheart, you know that I don't have eyes for anyone else but you," Emmett said, pulling her tight against his body. Alice leaned into Jasper, and I leaned into Edward. It felt right to be with our loved ones.

"How do you guys do this, year after year?" I asked them. "How do you keep from going crazy?"

"Well, we do go crazy," Emmett said. "Sometimes, we just have to let go a little bit. Edward has been known to do anything from correct the teacher on pronunciation, to speak the wrong language in class, to any number of things. Jasper tends to show out in history, telling stories about all of the wars. Rose likes to go to shop class and show all of the boys just how to tune up a car. Alice likes to draw in class; she does some of her greatest designs during math classes. And me, I like gym. I love to show out in gym. It keeps me honest."

"How does showing out in gym keep you honest, Emmett?" I asked.

"I thought that you'd never ask." Emmett said with a grin on his face. "I do things just a little better than I'm supposed to do them. That way, when I say that Rose is my girl, and I don't want people hitting on her or I'll get mad, they'll believe me, and I won't have to hurt any of them. Therefore, I'm keeping my promise to Carlisle and Esme. I'm not hurting anyone at school. So you see, showing out in gym keeps me honest."

It made sense in a weird, warped, Emmett kind of way. I nodded my head, agreeing with him. Yes, showing out in gym would keep his promise to Carlisle and Esme, therefore keeping him honest. All of a sudden, I had to laugh. I couldn't stop. I found that the laughter was contagious. Soon, the others were laughing as well. Only Emmett could make a round about argument like that actually make sense. Soon, our laughter died down, thanks to Jasper's efforts to send calming waves towards us. "Thanks again, Jasper. I thought that I was going to bust a gut," I said.

All too soon, the bell rang to signal us to go to third period. We had world history. It was in N117. Alice hugged Jasper good-bye, and we started making our way to the classroom. When we walked in, we went up to the teacher and handed him our slips for him to sign. He said, "My name is Mr. Edwards." He went to the locker near the door and picked up three textbooks which he gave to us. "Take your seats. We are starting chapter two today." We again took our seats, this time, though, we couldn't sit in our usual arrangement. There were only three seats on the same row. Alice sat in front, I sat in the middle, and Edward sat behind me. I never was very good at any history class, so I took out my notebook and started taking notes. We were talking about the fertile crescent and the Assyrians and other ancient peoples who made up the current Middle East.

Sometime during the middle of class, a folded piece of paper landed on my desk. I picked it up and opened it. It said, "Hi. I'm Jeremy. I'm sitting in the desk to your left. I'm in your first two classes. I'd like to get to know you better. Would you like to go with me to the football game this Friday night?"

I glanced over to my left and saw a nice looking boy smiling at me. I looked back at the paper and wrote, "No thank you. It was sweet of you to ask, but I have a long time boyfriend." I glanced at the front of the room to make sure that Mr. Edwards wasn't looking and handed the note back to Jeremy.

He opened it and read what I wrote. He wrote something else and handed it back to me. I opened it and read it. It said, "Long distance relationships rarely work. Come on, give me a chance. I won't bite, I promise."

I wrote back, "You misunderstood. My relationship is not long distance at all. Edward and I are and have been dating for some time now." I again made sure that Mr. Edwards wasn't looking and handed the note back to Jeremy.

He opened the note and read it. He wrote something on it and handed it back to me. I opened it and read, "I thought Edward said that you and he were brother and sister." I smiled and remembered back to when Jessica made the same statement about Emmett and Rosalie. Well here goes, I thought, scandal out in the open now.

As I wrote my reply, I filled Alice and Edward in on what was going on. They both sighed. Alice said that she knew that it wouldn't be long with the way Emmett and Rosalie were acting anyway. Edward said that it was like this wherever they went anyway. I wrote, "Edward, Alice, and Emmett are brothers and sisters. Jasper, Rosalie and I are brothers and sisters. Carlisle and Esme adopted all six of us. So while we are adopted siblings, we aren't related." I took my time, not wanting to get caught, and I passed the note back to Jeremy.

He read the note, and then he turned to stare at Edward. I started taking notes again. When the bell rang, signaling the end of class, I gathered my things, and took Edward's hand. He pulled me close to him as we walked out into the hall. We made a stop by our lockers since we were near them. We dropped off our books from the morning.

Our next subject was Algebra II in room S200. We walked into the next building and up the stairs. We found the room easily, and when we entered it, we went again to the teacher to have her sign our slips of paper. She went to the cabinet by the door and got us each a textbook which she handed to us. She said, "My name is Mrs. Davis. We are having an exam today. I'd like for you to take it, though I won't count your grades. I'd like to see where you are in your studies."

We went and took our seats in our usual formation. She handed out the exams. We each took one and began working. It was straight forward, solving polynomials by factoring. We finished well before the rest of the class did. We handed in the exams and sat back down. I didn't have anything to do, so I just took out a notebook and started writing. I wrote kind of a journal, things that I'd been thinking since I'd been changed, thoughts of my new family, my new diet, not sleeping, etc. After a few minutes, Edward asked me what I was doing, so I handed the notebook to him. After he read it, he told me it was a good idea for me to keep a journal of my thoughts, but it might be a bad idea to write in it at school. What if someone got a hold of it and read it. I told him that I would tell them that I was writing a short story. He thought about that for several minutes, then I could tell that he was re-reading it from that point of view. He said that it would work, and he gave the notebook back to me. I picked up where I left off.

When the bell rang, indicating the end of fourth period, we went to lunch. The whole high school had lunch during fifth period, so we met up with the others. We got in line to get our props. When we each had something on our trays, we looked for a table away from everyone else. Emmett led us to a table in the far corner. It seated six, so it was perfect. We all sat with our significant others. Everyone wanted to know how my day was going so far, so I told them that other than being bored out of my skull, I was doing okay. No one was tempting me. Then everyone turned to Jasper, and he said that he was doing fine as well. I think that he was happy to share the spotlight with someone for a change. The group then turned to Edward and asked him if anyone was suspicious of us. He said that he hadn't heard anything out of the ordinary. He said that the rumors about all of us being together were already starting to circulate through the student body. While I picked at my food, I remembered the first time that I saw the Cullens. It had been in a lunchroom, much like this one. First, I'd seen Emmett and Rosalie. Then I'd seen Alice and Jasper. Then, walking alone, I'd seen the man that I'd marry. The man that held my whole world in his hands. All of a sudden, I started feeling a surge of jealousy. I knew that every girl in this lunchroom had seen my husband the way that I'd seen him that first day. They wanted him for themselves. They were ogling him.

"Bella, what's wrong? What happened?" Jasper asked, reaching over to take my hand.

"What?" Edward asked, taking my other hand.

"She just became overwhelmed with a super strong surge of jealousy," Jasper said.

"Bella, love, what happened," Edward asked me, pulling me to look at him.

"I was thinking back to the first time that I saw you, in a cafeteria just like this one. How much I liked the way that you looked, the grin on your face, the way you walked, basically everything about you. Then I realized that most of the girls in this room are probably thinking the same thing that I was thinking all of those years ago," I said.

"Bella, is that all? Love, you know that I don't have eyes for anyone else in this room except for you. You know that you are my world and my life. You know that all of my love is for you for all of eternity. You don't have to worry about any of the children in this room or in any other room," Edward said, leaning over to give me a kiss. I kissed him back. When he broke it off, I leaned in for more. "Love," he said, "we're at school. We can do more of that at home, in fact, I'm going to insist on it, but this isn't the time or the place. You don't want to get in trouble on our first day, do you. Esme and Carlisle wouldn't be too happy to get that phone call, would they?"

"No, I guess that they wouldn't, would they," I said, pulling back away from him. Alice took my hand.

"It gets easier with time, trust me. You'll get used to it," she said.

"Speak for yourself," Emmett said, and we all laughed, breaking the tension again.

When the bell rang, we gathered our uneaten food and carried our trays to the tray return windows. We then went to our next classes. Edward, Alice, and I had Geometry in S202. It was next door to the room that we just came out of. We went to get our slips signed and get our books. The teacher's name was Mrs. Jones. We then took our seats. We were going over the basics of a proof. I didn't think that our classes could get any easier. The homework assignment was written on the dry erase board, so I started working on that. I easily had it finished before the end of class, so I went back to writing in my journal.

The bell rang, surprising me. I almost jumped out of my skin. I had been thinking back to my funeral and how Charlie was taking everything. I just sat there for a few seconds before I started putting away my things. Edward bent down to pick up my bookbag, and when I looked up at him, he could tell that I was upset. "What's wrong, love?"

"I was just thinking about Charlie."

"Oh. Are you going to be okay, or do you need to go home?"

"I'll be okay. Let's get going." I put my books into the bookbag and zipped it up.

Our final class of the day was gym. We went into the gym and found the coach. He signed our slips and told us that we would have to bring in school uniforms tomorrow. Today, we could work out in whatever we brought. We went into the locker rooms to change, and we saw Rose. Alice had packed us some clothes, not to overly revealing, thank God. When we had changed, we all three went outside to the practice field. Several of the boys whistled at us as we passed. We went to our mates and stood with them. Coach told us that the first thing that we were to do was to take a lap around the practice field, so we started running. The six of us ran as couples, not too fast, we let a couple of the boys pass us, but not too slow, either. We ended up being the first girls to finish, and the guys were the third, fourth, and fifth. When we finished running, we weren't even breathing hard. After everyone else finished running their lap, coach decided that we would play baseball. I looked at the others, and they shrugged their shoulders. We ended up on the same team. Edward came up to me and told me to try to reign in my strength. I could hit the ball, but to try not to hit it very hard. I nodded. Edward was the first one of us up to bat. He stepped up to the plate. When the ball was pitched, he swung and hit the ball. It went deep into left field. He ran, very slowly for him, to second base. Our team cheered. Next, Rose was up to bat. She hit the ball deep into right field, bringing Edward home, and advancing herself to second base. Alice went next, and when she hit the ball into center field, Rose scored, and Alice made it to second. Next was Jasper. He scored a home run by hitting it over the fence. I got up to go next. I hadn't ever _played_ baseball with them, so I had no idea how hard swinging the bat was actually swinging it hard. I was totally nervous when I stepped up to bat. I immediately felt a calming wave wash over me. I looked at Jasper and grinned. I looked back at the pitcher. He pitched the ball. It seemed to be going so slowly. When it finally made it to the plate, I swung the bat, not hard, just an average swing, but I knew that it was too hard immediately. I felt the vibration in the bat as the bat cracked, then splintered, then fell apart. Then I heard Emmett's "Oh Shit!" behind me. I turned around to look at them with shock on my face, and I was met with the same on theirs. I dropped what was left of the bat and ran into Edward's arms.

"I'm so sorry," I cried out in a whispered voice only they could hear. "I didn't know how hard to swing. I'm so sorry."

Alice came over to me and put her hand on my back. "It's okay. We all make mistakes when we're newborn. It's okay. We'll get through it."

The coach came up to home plate and picked up what was left of the bat. He looked at the pieces, then he looked at me. He walked up to me and said, "Are you okay?"

Edward said, "Her wrist is hurting her. She injured it before we moved, and the vibration when the bat broke made it hurt again."

"Does she need to go to the school nurse?" Coach Ash asked.

"No thank you. Our father can look at it when we get home. He is the new doctor in town," Edward said to him. "Why do you think that the bat broke?"  
"Your brother probably cracked it when he hit his home run. She probably just hit the ball in the wrong spot or something. Accidents like this happen from time to time. Do you want to take your run around the bases, young lady? You hit a home run."

"No thank you, my wrist is really throbbing," I said.

"April, pinch run for .. what is your name again?" Coach Ash asked me.

"Bella, Bella Hale."

"Pinch run for Bella. Bella, your family seems to be very good at baseball. Are any of you planning on trying out for the team this year?"

"We play as a family. It is one of the things that we like to do together. And, no, none of us is going to try out for the team. We travel a lot, and we can't guarantee that we would be available to be at games."

"That's too bad." Then he said to the class, "Okay, bring it in. Go get changed."

We headed back to the locker rooms. We entered and changed in silence. Most of the other girls were staring at us while we changed. From somewhere in the back of the locker room, we could hear someone saying that they wanted to really get to know that blond haired boy who hit the home run. She went on to say that she would have him before the week was out. He was in her history class, and he had the sweetest southern accent that she'd ever heard. It was all that I could do to keep Alice from going after her.

"Alice, you're the one who goes home with him every night, remember. You're the one who he whispers sweet nothings, and not so sweet nothings to, all night long. Don't let her get under your skin," I said.

"I know. I just think that tomorrow is time for all of us to establish the fact that the boys are taken," Alice said.

"Here, Here!" Rose said.

"What about getting into trouble? What about Carlisle and Esme?" I asked.

"Esme can tell everyone at the hospital and clinic that she and Carlisle are married. She can wear her wedding ring. As soon as they let us tell everyone the same, then okay. But until then, I think that I'll take getting into trouble to mark my man as claimed," Alice said.

"I'm in," I said.


	10. Chapter 10

**Disclaimer: Stephenie Meyer owns it all.**

**Chapter 10: Here We Go Again**

When we left the locker room, we found the guys waiting for us. Unfortunately, they weren't waiting alone. There were several girls surrounding them. Although none of the guys were paying them any attention, in fact, they were trying to fight them off, the girls weren't taking the hint.

"I'm Sandra, and this is Sally. We're twins. We'd really like to go to the football game with you two Friday night. We'll make it worth your while, if you know what I mean," a red haired, under-dressed, overly made up, fake tits, crooked teethed whore said as she ran her arms up and down Edward's chest. Her sister was touching Jasper on his hips and was looking like she was about to go down south any second. Emmett was doing his best to hold off an eight armed floozy with fire engine red lips and sky blue eye shadow.

I stepped up to Sandra and tapped her on the shoulder. "Hi Sandra, I'm Bella, and he's mine." I took her hand off of his chest and squeezed it a little bit too hard. I then pushed her back into the wall, again, just a little bit too hard. She fell to the floor, tears running down her face.

Alice, at the same time, went up to Jasper and pulled him away from the other girl. She said, "Sally, is it? Jasper is mine. Take your filthy hands off of him. Tell all of your skanky friends that all three of them are taken. And just so that you can remember to keep your hands off of my man," she took the hand that had been lowest on Jasper's hip and gave it a little squeeze. I heard a bone break. "Now, I don't think that you want to go and touch my man again. Next time, I won't be squeezing your hand."

Rose was less subtle. She took the octopus and tore her off of Emmett. She then shoved her into the concrete wall of the gym. "He is taken. He is mine. If you have any more questions, bitch, meet me outside, off of school property, and we will discuss it. Otherwise, tell every whore that you know that the next one of you who touches my man is going to pay dearly."

The guys then put their arms around our necks, and we walked to the main building to go to our lockers so that we could get our books. We gathered what we needed for homework, and then went to the office to turn in our slips to Mrs. Copeland. Then we headed for our cars. When we got to the parking lot, we noticed a rather large group of rather large boys near our cars. We could hear them talking from the other side of the parking lot. They were saying things like, "Who do they think that they are?" and "They don't know who they're messing with!" and "We're going to set them straight!" and "They think that they can just walk into our town and mess with our girls!" and "We're going to show them whose boss!" and "They're going to be sorry that they ever moved to Black River Falls" and "They're going to run back to Alaska with their tails tucked between their legs."

We didn't stop walking or pay them any attention. We just continued to walk to our cars. As we approached the cars, the boys approached us. The biggest one said, "I don't think that you folks are fitting in very well here."

Edward, forever our spokesman, put his backpack down. The rest of us did the same. He stepped up to the boy who had spoken to him. "Is that a problem for you?"

"Yes, it is a problem for me. One of the girls that your sisters assaulted in the gym just happens to be my little sister."

"Which one? The red haired skank with the fake tits, her twin – the slut with the bad overbite, or the whore with eight arms?" Alice asked.

"That's it. You don't know when to keep your sister's mouth closed, do you?" the big one asked.

"Alice, no, we don't even try to shut her up anymore. We've found out over the years that when Alice says something, we listen. We bet on Alice, because Alice is never wrong," Emmett said, walking forward.

"You are going to pay for that," another boy in the crowd said.

"Wait just a minute. She was only reaching for his dick. She didn't blow him or even whack him off. We don't pay for whores who don't finish the job!" Jasper said, and that was all it took. Ten very large boys attacked all at once. Four went for Jasper, and three each went for Emmett and Edward. I wanted to get into the fight, but Alice and Rose both held me back. They said that human girls couldn't fight, and that I'd blow my cover if I got into the middle of it. We had to let the boys handle it. It wasn't the first time that they'd been in this situation.

Suddenly, Alice went into one of her trances. She said, "Jasper," and then she woke up. She looked at Rose and me and said, "Someone is going to bleed. Jasper is going to lose it. We've got to get him out of here."

I went up to Edward. "Keys," I said to him. He turned to look at me with a question in his eyes. I said, "Jasper." He blocked a punch and reached into his pocket, pulling out his keys. He handed them to me. Then I went to Jasper. "Come on Jazz, we've got to go now." He turned to look at me like I was crazy.

"Now, Bella. This isn't a good time," Jasper said.

I took him by the arm and pulled. My newborn strength was stronger than he was. He was pulling against me. "Jazz, you've got to go now. Someone is about to get cut and bleed. You and I have to go now." He looked at me, at the fear in my voice. We both ran to the Volvo and got into the car. We drove off, heading for the house.

"Thank you, Bella," Jasper said.

"Thank you, Alice. She had the vision. I don't know what would have happened to us both if we were confronted with blood. The others could have stood it, but I don't know if they could have pulled both of us off," I said.

We waited on the porch for the others to arrive. They were twenty minutes behind us. Emmett was driving, and they skidded to a stop right in front of the porch. They all jumped out, Edward and Alice carrying two bookbags.

"Well, what happened?" I asked as they came up on the porch.

"A couple of teachers finally came and broke it up," Edward said. "We are supposed to go to Mr. Barnard's office in the morning, all of us, the girls, too. In fact, everyone who was present is supposed to meet there in the morning."

"Why don't all of you come on inside and tell us all about it?" we heard Carlisle say from the dining room.

If my heart was beating, it would have skipped a beat. As it was, my stomach was in my chest. I followed the rest of my siblings into the fabled dining room. I had only been in on a couple of meetings in this room, and in none of those was I one of the ones in trouble. I took my seat next to Edward. The others took their seats.

"Okay, let's hear it. Who wants to start?" Carlisle asked.

Nobody spoke up. "Edward, as the oldest, I guess that it falls on you to explain."

"I guess now would be a bad time to remind everybody that Jasper is actually older than I am by about 60 years...." Everyone remained quiet, and Jasper glared at him, sending him a wave of anger. "I guess so, Okay, here goes. Today has been a really bad day for the six of us pertaining to dealing with our jealousy towards our mates. I don't know why it was worse today than any other day or other first day at a new school, but it was. Girls were physically all over Emmett. Guys were whistling at Rose. Jasper had one girl practically palming him in the gym, right in front of Alice. Guys were fantasizing about Alice and Bella no matter which way I turned. I'm sure that Jazz was feeling the lust coming off of them. And Bella had never experienced the girls touching me before, but she had heard all of the girls at Forks High and their fantasies, so she knew what most of them were thinking, and she wasn't far off. Well, everybody held it together until the end of the day. When we finished changing after gym, we were waiting for the girls outside of their locker rooms, when several girls came on to us. They were being physical, and no amount of telling them to back off was working. So when the girls came out of the locker room, they kinda took matters into their own hands, literally. They called the girls names, and basically man-handled them a little bit. I think that Alice broke one of their hands. Anyway, we turned in our teacher slips and got our books out of our lockers, and when we went to the cars, we were met by half of the football team. They talked some smack, and we talked some smack, and they started a fight. It was about ten to the three of us. We didn't hit anybody; we just blocked punches. Bella had to pull Jaz out because Alice had a vision that one of them would bleed, and one of them did split his knuckles on Emmett's chin. Then a couple of teachers broke it up. We all have to go to Mr. Barnard's office in the morning."

"Alice, what do you see?" Esme asked.

Alice concentrated for several minutes, then she answered, "We are all going to get one day of in school suspension. We should take something to keep us occupied, and no Emmett, if you try to sneak in your I-pod, you will get caught, and it will get taken away. You need to find something else to keep you occupied. No, not Rose, they won't allow petting. Something else. No, no cards. Something else. No, no Nintendo. Something else. Something like a book to read. No, no Playboy or Hustler. A book, Emmett. Yes, Lord of the Rings is perfect."

"What I don't understand is why this is so difficult for the six of you. You seem to have a problem with this everywhere that we go. Esme and I don't have this problem, and she's not with me every moment of the day. At least you six get to spend the day together," Carlisle said.

"That's nice, Carlisle," I said, "but you also get to be married to Esme. You get to wear your wedding ring every day. Every female that sees you sees an outward sign that you are taken. You don't have strange women come up to you daily and put their hands on you. You don't have strange men go up to Esme every day and ask her to go out with them. We don't have that. And to top that off, we are pretending to be brothers and sisters. People out there assume that brothers and sisters don't date. So you see, when we go to school, they see six very attractive, very unattached people who they very much want to sink their claws into. When you let the six of us be husband and wife, the jealousy and fighting will cease."

"Carlisle, she has a point. I can't imagine what they must go through. If I walked into the hospital and saw some woman with her hands near little Carlisle, I would throw her into a wall, too."

"EWWW, Mom, TMI, TMI," Emmett said.

"I see," said Carlisle. "Maybe I should go to your meeting in the morning. I think that Mr. Barnard needs to understand some things about your relationships."

"Thank you, Dad," Edward said.

Edward, Alice, and I spent the next thirty minutes finishing our homework. Then everyone, except Alice, went outside with me to work on controlling my strength. We tossed a football back and forth for a little bit while Alice went shopping for our gym uniforms. Then, we decided to go inside and work on my fine motor skills. They gave me an old encyclopedia and had me try to turn one page at a time. I was the subject of many laughs when I turned from aardvark to anteater. They said that I was trying to advance my diet, one "A" at a time.

When the family was finally finished with my "occupational therapy," Edward and I went hunting. We ran together into the forest, hand in hand. He let me "lead" the hunt. I soon identified another wolf scent and started tracking it. This time, there were two wolves, both of them eating from a fresh kill. I fell into a crouch and attacked. I took the one on the left down, breaking its neck in one swift motion. I drained him swiftly as Edward took his partner. I was learning quickly. When we had disposed of the corpses, we went for a walk.

"How bad was it today?" I asked him.

"Well, let's just say that every boy that you and Alice passed started having wild fantasies about you two. It wasn't fun to watch. Sometimes I wish that I could just turn off the voices and live in quiet."

"What do you think that Mr. Barnard is going to say tomorrow?"

"It will be okay. We usually have to go through this when we first move to a new place. It is hard for all of us, well usually all of them, to deal with the advances of the children. You'd think that they'd be afraid of us, want to avoid us, but they seem to want to get near us. It happens every time. This is just the first time that it has affected me so directly."

"What can we do to isolate us more effectively?"

"Eventually, it just happens. The rumors get started that we're dating each other. We have to be seen out with each other occasionally. That is usually the best way to get them to start laying off of us."

"Well, would you like to take me to the football game Friday night?"

"I don't know about that. We generally don't go. There is usually blood at football games. I don't know if that would be good for you or for Jasper."

"Oh, I didn't think of that. Well, how about a movie tomorrow night? I'd like to go somewhere with the family. I guess that I'm not used to being up all night, yet. I'm going stir crazy, Edward. I don't know what to do with myself."

"Love, that's why Alice shops and designs clothes. Jasper does his Civil War research. He has written several books on the Civil War under a pseudonym. Rose has her love of cars, and she keeps all of the cars perfectly tuned. Emmett, well, truthfully, besides his video games and Rose, I don't know what Emmett does to keep himself entertained. I have my music. Carlisle has medicine, and Esme has her home restoration and design. Then we all learn languages. You, love, have your reading and writing. You could read to your heart's content. You could also write, short stories or a novel. If you wanted for me to work with you on a language, I'm all yours. The world is yours. All that you have to do choose."

"I still am having trouble turning one page at a time. That would make reading a little bit complicated. I think that I would like to learn a language. I've never been very good at languages, and I've heard you and Alice speak other languages. That would be cool."

"Which one would you like to start with?"

"I took two years of Spanish during college, but I never really learned it. I couldn't really do much more than count to twenty and tell you my name at this point."

"Well, let's begin." Edward and I walked until sunrise. He spoke in Spanish, requiring me to translate what he had said. As the night went on, I soon began to recognize certain phrases. By morning, I was beginning to answer him in elementary statements. He told me that he was pleased with my progress.

We headed back to the house to get ready for school. After making love in the shower, we got dressed and met the others downstairs. At 7 o'clock, we set off for school following Carlisle. We parked and followed Carlisle to Mr. Barnard's office. He was already in, and he opened the locked door for us. We followed him into his office. He shut the door. The six of us paired off as Carlisle took a seat across from his desk.

"I didn't expect you to attend this meeting, Dr Cullen," Mr. Barnard said.

"I felt like I needed to talk with you after talking with the kids yesterday afternoon," Carlisle started.

"There was a video taken of the entire incident. We have video surveillance of most of the school grounds. When the tape of the incident was reviewed, it was determined that your children were not responsible for initiating the altercation yesterday afternoon. It was also determined that they didn't throw any punches. They only defended themselves. However, the rules still stand. The six of them were involved in confrontations yesterday. They will receive one day of In School Suspension. They will be allowed to complete all of their school work and homework today. They are to go to their lockers and get all of their books. Then they are to report to the cafeteria where they will spend today."

"That is acceptable. Now, what I wanted to discuss with you. My children are in relationships with each other. Emmett and Rosalie are together. Jasper and Alice are together, and Edward and Bella are together. I understand that to you this may seem unorthodox. However, let me explain. These teenagers, I won't call them children as they are far from children. They were neighbors in the small town where they grew up. Emmett, Edward, and Alice are brothers and sisters. Jasper, Rosalie, and Bella are brothers and sisters. They grew up together and began dating, pairing off into couples. Their parents were the best of friends. One weekend, tragedy struck both families. Their parents were attending a social function together when they were all four killed in an automobile accident. The six of them were placed in foster care when no relatives were found to take them in. My wife and I lived in the same town. I knew these guys since they were babies, having been their physician. My wife and I can't have children of our own, so when they were placed in foster care and were going to be split up, we decided to adopt them all. So, you see, while legally they are brothers and sisters, their relationships predate their becoming siblings. We, my wife and I, have no problems with them continuing their relationships. In fact, we are encouraging them. We have no intention to force more hurt and trauma on them."

"I see. Well, that makes sense. I think that you and your wife are wonderful people to take them into your home like that. I have no problem with their relationships. They will have to obey the school handbook on the rules of PDA, only holding hands is allowed on campus."

"Well, you see, their relationships are what the problems yesterday all stemmed from."

"In what way?"  
"Well, several girls were throwing themselves at the boys. They were touching them very inappropriately. When the girls came out of the locker room and witnessed the fondling, they got just a little bit angry."

"What do you mean, inappropriate touching?"

"One of them apparently had her hand on Jasper's crotch. The other two weren't far behind."

"Well, yes, that is definitely inappropriate behavior. Where did this take place? None of the video cameras that we reviewed showed that happening."

"Just outside of the girl's locker room in the gym."

"Do you know who did it?"

Carlisle looked at Alice. "I assume it was the one with the broken hand." Alice nodded.

"How do you know that she has a broken hand?"

"They heard her bone snap when Alice squeezed it."

"Oh. Okay. Well, it sure sounds like she deserved it. Now you kids get to your lockers then get to the cafeteria."

"Yes sir," we said. We left, hand in hand.

Once outside of the office, Edward said, "Thanks Carlisle."

"You're welcome. Have a good day. See you at home."

We got our books and headed to the cafeteria. We took a table in the corner and sat down. We talked about going to the movies tonight. Everyone agreed to go with Edward and me. Then we started talking in Spanish to work with me. I was still having problems with some of the verbs. Edward started making me a list of the verbs that I was missing and their conjugations. I looked over them until the In School Suspension supervisor arrived with our assignments. She walked over to our table and explained that the rules included no talking. If we were caught talking, we would be separated.

Ten minutes later the others arrived. The supervisor had them to arrange themselves at tables around ours so that she could pay attention to all of us at the same time. There was an increased amount of grumbling as they took their seats. The largest boy took a seat behind me. I felt Edward tense. Under my breath and too low for anyone to hear except for us, I asked Edward what he was thinking.

"He's thinking that he would like to take you behind the gym and strip your clothes off."

"Just remember, sweetheart, you're the only one who gets to do that, and you basically did, just this morning, though we weren't behind the gym. If you'd like to go behind the gym tonight, I could arrange that," I said, placing my hand on his thigh.

He took my hand in his and gave it a squeeze. "Let's get this work done, love, then we can talk all you want to." I nodded my head and tried to open The Lord of the Flies. Our instructions for today were to write a summary of chapter 6. Try as I might, I couldn't turn the pages. Frustrated, I finally put the book down.

"Edward, can I look on with you? I can't seem to get my fingers to turn only one page at a time, yet." Emmett stifled a laugh as Rosalie hit him in the back of the head. Edward turned back to the first page of the chapter and leaned towards me, holding the book between us so that I could see it, too. I could read as fast as he could, so when he was finished with a page and turned a page, I was ready as well. It took us a whole five minutes to read the chapter, then another five to write a summary. Our chemistry assignment was to answer the questions at the end of the next section of the chapter. Edward turned to the questions, putting his book between us. We finished the questions in another five minutes. In world history, we were to outline the next two sections of the chapter. Edward again put his book between us. This assignment took a little longer to complete, a whole ten minutes. Algebra II was a page full of problems, easily worked in ten minutes, and Geometry took another ten. All together, today's work and homework took an hour to complete. The others were done as well. School was such a waste.

We took our work to the teacher who was supervising us. She told us that we needed to wait until we had finished all of the work and turn it in together. We told her that we did finish it all and gave it to her. Then we went back to our table. We took our seats, and Alice took out a sketch pad. She began working on some new sketches. I tried to look over her shoulder, but she shooed me off. Emmett took out The Lord of the Rings and started reading it.

Jasper looked at Rose, and she pulled out a one thousand piece puzzle. He said, "Let's work on your fine motor skills some, Bella." Alice looked up and put up her drawing pad. She and Edward moved their chairs closer to mine. Rose opened the box and set it in the middle of the table. Immediately, four hands entered the box and started pulling out end pieces.

I started to try to put some of the end pieces together when Edward said, "What do you think that you are doing?"

"Putting together the puzzle?" I asked, stopping and pulling my hands out of the mayhem.

"Edward doesn't let you put the end pieces together until all of the corner pieces have been located," Jasper said.

"Oh, okay. I didn't realize that puzzles came with a rule book," I countered. Then I gave Edward a quick kiss on the cheek so that he would know that I was just kidding.

"Corner," Alice said, putting it to the side.

A few seconds later, Rose said, "Corner." _That's two_, I ticked off in my mind. _Only two more to go then I can start touching puzzle pieces._

"Corner," Alice said again. _That's three. Only one more._

"Corner," Edward said. "Now you can start working on the edges."

I started working on the sides of the puzzle. It was initially hard for my to pick up the pieces of the puzzle. I would push it into the table or scoot it before I picked it up. We finally got the outside put together. Then we started working on the inside.

The supervising teacher walked over to our table. She asked us, "What are you doing?"

Alice said, "Um, putting together a puzzle?"

She asked us, "Why are you putting together a puzzle?"

Alice said, "Because we're done with all of our work, and you don't want us to talk. We didn't think that you'd want us to play a game."

She thought for a little while, then she said, "I don't want you putting together a puzzle either."

Alice asked, "Then exactly what do you want us to do for the remaining 7 hours of the school day?"

She said, "You can study, or you can reflect about what you did to receive this punishment."

Reluctantly, we put the puzzle back into its box. When she walked away, Emmett looked at us and said, "You should have brought a book to read." We broke out laughing, this time out loud. Ms. In School Suspension glared at us, and we realized that we were being too loud.

I have to admit that my appreciation for the activities that we had available for our entertainment during our long nights grew during that long seven hours. When the day was over, we gladly took our books to our lockers and headed towards our cars. We were walking hand in hand. Several of the other students were whispering about us being together. Good, the word was finally getting out. When we reached the cars, we climbed in, and I kissed Edward long and deep. I saw several of the girls watching us, staring, with their mouths open. Edward broke the kiss and started the car. We followed Emmett home.

Since we didn't have any homework, Edward and I went hunting until time for us to leave for the movie. We all crowded into Emmett's jeep and made our way to the theater. We parted into couples, and got into line. There were several people that I recognized from school. The guys bought our tickets, and we hung onto them as we moved into the correct theater. As soon as we sat down, I leaned over and started kissing Edward.

"Um, Bella, what are you doing?" he asked.

"I'm staking my claim. I can either kiss you or do something else with you, your choice," I said. He leaned over and started kissing me again. We weren't the only ones. Emmett and Rose weren't holding back. Even Jasper and Alice, who don't usually exhibit their feelings for each other in public, were kissing. We watched the movie when it came on, and when it was over, we walked out, hand in hand. Before we got into the jeep, we held each other and kissed for a little while, just to make sure that everyone got a chance to see us.

The next day at school, a boy in a soccer uniform walked up to me while Edward and I were at our lockers. "Hi, my name is Josh. We're having a soccer game tonight, and I thought that I'd invite you and your brother to the game."

"That's sweet of you, but Edward is my boyfriend. We have been together for the past 5 years," I said.

"I thought that he said that you were his sister when he introduced you day before yesterday. I'm confused," Josh said.

"Well, technically, I guess you could say that he is my brother. The Cullens adopted all of us. However, we were all together before we were adopted. Carlisle and Esme don't have a problem with us being together, so I don't see why anybody else should. Besides, I wouldn't give Edward up even if they did have a problem with it. I was made to be with him for eternity, literally," I said, leaning into Edward. He put his arms around me and kissed me on the top of the head.

"Let's go, love. We don't want to be late for class." We started moving towards our English class and Josh followed us. We ran into Alice and Jasper outside of the door. The lust that Jasper was putting off was intense.

"Good Lord, Jasper. You and Alice need to take care of that before you leave in the mornings. You're going to make me uncomfortable for the whole morning if you keep that up," I said. "Pun definitely intended. Edward and I usually take care of that in our morning shower."

"I know, we all hear you two, every morning. You aren't very quiet, Bella," Alice said.

"Better at home than at school, Ali," I said.

"Okay, you two, enough," Edward said. "Let's get this day over with and the two of you can do whatever you please with Jasper and me at home. Deal?"

"Deal," Alice and I said at once.

Jasper just smiled and hugged Alice another time. "See you at morning break, darlin'. Don't start without me."

"Jazz, you know that I don't start without you, much," Alice said.

We walked into the English room, and Josh walked in after us. Little did he know that we had staged the whole conversation just for his benefit. We were tired of the blatant suggestions and innuendos that kept spilling from those around us wanting to touch our spouses or worse. By morning break, we were definitely the talk of the school. Everyone knew that we were together. Several people looked like they wanted to approach us, but then they changed their minds. Things were starting to work in our favor, and we were happy with the results.


	11. Chapter 11

**Disclaimer: Stephenie Meyers owns it all.**

**Chapter 11 – Seasons Change**

Things seemed to get better after Carlisle had his talk with Mr. Barnard, and we had our little display in the hall. People started talking behind our backs. We became the topic of discussions, not all of them nice. Words such as incest and disgusting were thrown around. They had heard it all before. This was my first time, and at first, I held my heart on my sleeves. It bothered me. I didn't like that people were thinking that I was sleeping with my brother. In fact, it really bothered me to the point that I came close to telling them that we weren't adopted at all, that we were married and just lived with the Cullens and took their names. Alice saw it happening and stopped me before I could say it. Needless to say, I kept Alice busy for the first few weeks of high school.

Eventually, the other students began to leave us alone. We would sit together at lunch, at the table in the back of the cafeteria, away from the windows. We would still be stared at, but none were brave enough to approach us. My blood lust remained under control, and Jasper seemed to gain strength from me being around. I grew to where I could feed every other day, and then, every third day. My family was impressed with my progress.

I could now turn pages one at a time, and I could hit a baseball without breaking the bat. I could run the bases without running too fast, and I could sit in class and pretend to pay attention. My eyes were completely golden by now, so I didn't have to fool with the contacts anymore. That was a momentous day in my new life.

I subscribed to the "Forks Forum," the local newspaper, under a pseudonym. I had it come to a local post office box that Edward and I rented for mail that we didn't want to go to our address. I had to keep up with the local news. I had to know what was happening with those that I loved. It was one day in early October when I was scanning the prior day's newspaper in Chemistry class that I stopped cold. There, right smack dab in the middle of the "Society" page of the newspaper, was the wedding announcement for Charles and Sue Swan. They had been married the Saturday before in a small ceremony. Leah had been Maid of Honor, and Seth had been Best Man. It was official. My Dad was starting to get on with his life. He was taking on a new family, replacing me in his heart. I knew that I should feel joy for him, for his ability to move forward and be happy, but I ached to be his daughter again. I ached to have him hold me in his arms, the way that only a father could do.

As soon as the bell rang signaling the end of Chemistry and the beginning of morning break, I grabbed my books and ran out of the room, not waiting on Edward or Alice. I ran outside past the area where we usually took our break and into the woods bordering the school. Then I really began to run. I ran at vampire speed deep into the woods, running as fast as I could, running until I was in Canada. When I stopped, I collapsed onto the frozen ground. I pulled out the newspaper again and looked at it. There was a picture. In it Charlie looked happy. He was gazing down at Sue with love in his eyes. I stared at the picture trying to see the Charlie that I knew. He wasn't there. The Charlie that I knew never smiled that way. The Charlie that I knew didn't have dancing eyes like his were. This was a new Charlie. I folded the paper and put it into my backpack.

I climbed one of the tallest trees and sat there for the rest of the afternoon. I thought about what I was feeling. I thought about being jealous of Sue and her children. I realized that I was the one who had decided to leave Charlie. I was the one who decided to make myself dead to him. I wondered what I expected of him. Did I expect him to wither away and die? Did I expect him to mourn my loss for the rest of his life like he seemed to be mourning the loss of Renee'? Well, guess what Bella. Not only did he quit mourning your loss, he quit mourning Renee's. He pulled himself back together and fell in love again. Damn it, Bella. Get off of your pity party and be happy for the man. Realize that he needs human company. He needs human companionship. He needs to love and be loved. He needs Sue. Okay. I can accept that. He needs Sue. He replaced Renee'.

Did he replace me? Just because Seth was his Best Man and Leah was her Maid of Honor, does that mean that Charlie has replaced me in his life. I was gone to him. I was dead. I burned in a car accident. The fact that Sue had two children from a previous marriage that she was bringing into their marriage didn't mean that Charlie was replacing me with them. Seth was his Best Man because he was going to be his new step-son. Leah was her Maid of Honor because she was her daughter. That didn't mean that they were special to Charlie like I was. That didn't mean that they took my place in his heart. We had a special relationship. It was one built on trust and faith in one another. There was no way that either Seth or Leah could have that relationship with Charlie this soon. There was no way that they could have taken my place in Charlie's heart.

The more that I thought about it, the more that I realized that I was okay with Charlie getting married again. He needed to have that companionship in his life. I wasn't being replaced. I wasn't even being substituted. He was just moving on. That was okay. I got to my feet and started running back towards Wisconsin. I was following my scent back the way that I'd come. It was late by the time that I reached Black River Falls. The moon was high in the sky, and nobody was out and about. I made it back to the school parking lot.

Edward was sitting beside his car waiting on me to come back. "Do you want to talk about it?" he asked.

"Charlie got married to Sue," I said as I took a seat next to him. "Seth and Leah stood up for them."

"Did you work it out?"

"I think so. I was so jealous at first. I felt like he was replacing me. I felt like he had forgotten that I ever existed, like he didn't care that I was gone. Maybe the fact that I was finally gone allowed him to get on with his life, like I was holding him back the whole time that I was with him."

"Bella, love, you have to know that isn't true."

"Yeah, I know. It took me a while to figure that out. I know that Charlie needs someone to love him, and Sue has been there for him when he's needed her. She was there for him during my funeral. I strongly suspect that she's been there for him even before then. He was just too chicken shit to tell me that he was dating again. Like I would have freaked out or something. I would have been so happy for him to have her in his life. And Seth and Leah, they're just his step-kids. They'll never take my place in his heart. Deep down, I know that."

"So, love, what do you want to do?"

"I want to give them a wedding gift, I think. I've thought about it. They both have homes that are already furnished. They both have vehicles. The only thing that they don't have, and knowing Charlie, they still don't have it, is a vacation slash honeymoon. I'd like to set them up with a nice cruise or something."

"That would be very nice. Where do you think that they'd like to go?"

"That's the hard one. Dad's never taken a real vacation. I'd like to send him somewhere where he can get in some fishing, of course. I was thinking of an Alaskan cruise with some side trips."

"I agree. That would give Charlie some time to fish, but it will also give Sue some time with Charlie. We can book Sue some spa time as well. Let's call our travel agent tomorrow after school."

"Thank you, Edward. Thank you so much for everything."

"What are you thanking me for. Of course I'm going to agree to give Charlie a gift. If I thought that we'd get away with it, I'd suggest that we give him several gifts or set him up a nice retirement fund."

"That would be nice, but I wouldn't want the money going to Leah and Seth if something happened to Charlie. I'm not that happy with them being my step-siblings. Maybe we can arrange vacations for him every year. Maybe we can arrange for Mr. Jenks to deposit money into his account every year until his death."

"I think that would be possible, love."

"That wasn't what I was thanking you for, though. I was thanking you for letting me be alone yesterday. I needed time to work through it for myself."

"Yeah. I figured that you would have pulled me with you if you wanted to talk with me. Jasper told me that you were feeling intense jealousy and sadness when you left. Alice said that you'd be back here about now, so I thought that I'd meet you here where we could talk if you were ready to."

"Edward, I miss Charlie."

"I know you do, Bella. I know. I wish that there was something that I could do to make that better for you, but you and I both know that nothing that I can say is going to make that any better."

"Do you think that I made the right decision?"

"I do, love. I really do. You would've hurt Charlie much worse if you'd just left him without him knowing what had happened to you. He would've spent the rest of his life looking for you. I don't think that you'd have been able to live with yourself knowing that he was going through that."

"Thank you again."

"For what, exactly?"  
"For telling me what I needed to hear."

"Are you ready to head home? There are some anxious people waiting to see you."

"Yes, I am. Thank you for coming to get me."

"My pleasure, wife." I reached over and kissed him. He pulled me to my feet and walked me to the passenger side of the car. He opened the door for me, always my gentleman. I got in and got settled. He drove us home, and before he could park the car, the rest of the family was outside, on the porch.

I got out of the car, and we walked to the porch. Esme was the first to come up to me. "Are you okay, Bella?" she asked.

"Yes, thank you. I'm okay now. It was a trying day, but I've come to terms with it, and I'm going to be okay, I think."

"What happened?" Alice asked. "All that I saw was you reading the newspaper and then leaving. I didn't see what was in the paper."

"Why don't we all go inside and sit down. I'm sure Bella will explain what she is comfortable with telling us," Carlisle said.

I gave him a smile and followed him inside to the living room. Edward and I sat on one of the love seats, and each of the other couples claimed their own as well. I leaned back against Edward's chest, and he wrapped his arms around me. They all looked at me expectantly. "Once you guys all hear what set me off, you're going to know that I'm crazy. You won't be thinking it any more. Anyway, what happened. You all know that I've been subscribing to the "Forks Forum." I was looking through the most recent edition this morning during Chemistry when I came across a wedding announcement for Charlie and Sue Clearwater. It seems that my Dad got married. It hit me hard. He never even let me know that they were dating. I know that she was with him at my funeral, but that was the only time that I've seen them together. They must have been going out for some time if he's already married her. I felt hurt that he kept this from me. Then I felt that he was replacing me in his heart. He now has 2 step-children, Seth and Leah. I just felt like all of this is just happening too soon after my death. I went off to think things through. I took me a while, but I've come to grips with the fact that Charlie deserves to move on with his life. He can't mourn my loss forever, and if Sue makes him happy, then he deserves to marry Sue and be happy. I can't say that I'm happy that Leah is part of his family. I've never gotten along with her, but Seth is a wonderful guy. He'll help to take care of Charlie. So, that was my major crisis of the day. I'm going to be okay with this, but it's going to take some time. Edward has been super supportive, and I couldn't ask for a better family."

"Bella, it has been kind of strange for us, too. I was changed over 300 years ago. At the time, my father thought that I was dead as well. Times back then were so much different than now. Once I left my home, I never went back. I never knew what became of him. Edward lost his parents first and had no family left when I changed him. Esme had just lost her son when I changed her, and her husband had left her. Rosalie took vengeance on Royce and all of his accomplices, but she never knew what happened to her parents. Emmett never knew what happened to his parents after he died in the forest. Alice has no memory of her family. And Jasper had joined the military. When he was changed, his mother thought that he had been killed in action. He wasn't able to keep up with her life. So you see, Bella dear, you are the first one of us who is able to keep up with your former life after you have been changed. You are the first one of us who has had to deal with these issues. While it is nice that you are able to know that your father is living and working and loving, it is also hard on you to know that he is living and working and loving. It may have been easier on you to have severed all ties to your past permanently."

"I don't know, Carlisle. It may have been easier, but would any of you chosen to have left your past completely behind if you had the choice to know what happened to your past family?"

"I don't know if I can honestly answer that, Bella. I would love to know what happened to my family, not only my parents, but my sister as well. I would love to know if I had nieces or nephews or any descendants of my own, actually," Emmett said. "I wouldn't call me the most careful guy in the history of my town. My reputation as a ladies man was well deserved at the time. But, at the time, a clean break from everything sure made my new life easier to adapt to. There wasn't any going back, and I knew it. I couldn't let myself grieve over my past because I had this awesome future to look forward to. I had Rosie, and I had Carlisle and Esme, and yes, I even had Edward, though he was quite the douchbag then. I looked forward and have never looked back."

"I, on the other hand, have looked back. I have traced my family tree down through the present. I have nieces and nephews through my brother's family. As far as I can tell, I have no children of my own. I know when my mother, God rest her soul, passed away. I know where she is buried. Every so often, I take a trip to Texas to lay flowers on her and my brother's graves. If I could have, I'd have kept up with my family. However, with me being in Maria's army, there was no way that I could ever see them. If I brought any attention to them at all, they would have been massacred. I could have never held that on my conscience. Therefore I stayed as far away from them as was feasible. I don't blame you for a second for wanting to know about Charlie and wanting to take care of him, Bella," Jasper said.

"I've never looked back, and I never want to. When my husband left me after my son died, it broke my heart. I don't care what happened to him. I have my husband now in Carlisle, and I have my children in you six. My family is complete," Esme said.

"I've never looked back, either. My parents lost everything when they lost me. I don't know what ever happened to them. I'm sure that they died in each other's arms. That is the way that I've always pictured it. That is the way that I want to remember them. So, no, I don't want to look back. Bella, for someone who has so desperately wanted to join this family for so long, it is strange seeing you having regrets," Rosalie said.

"No, you misunderstand. These aren't regrets at all. I don't regret that I've been changed. In fact, the new world that I've been born into is more spectacular than I even imagined that it could be," I said.

"All that we've heard from you is complaints. You are bored with the long nights. You are bored with school. And now, you are hurt that your father has gotten re-married and moved on with his human life after you insisted that you fake your death to set him free. We have done everything your way, Bella. We have moved on account of you. We have started over because of you. What else do you want from us?" Rosalie asked with a hint of frustration in her voice.

"Rose, that isn't necessary," Carlisle started to say.

"Rose, we don't need that attitude," Alice said at the same time.

"Rose, if you don't have something nice to say, then don't say anything at all," Esme said, also at the same time.

"Rose, how dare you," Edward started.

"No, Rose is right. I can see her point very clearly. I have had a harder time adjusting than I thought that I would. I did think that those conversations were between my husband and myself when I was having them, though. I really didn't mean to take my frustrations out on the whole family. I was just discussing with Edward those thoughts that have been running through my mind. I don't know how I thought that I would feel about Charlie. I don't know if I expected him to just live his life the same way that he always has, or what, but the last thing that I expect was for him to get married and have a new family to take care of."

"I think that we can see how that would shock you, especially if you didn't know that they had been dating for the better part of a year," Esme said.

"Almost a year! No, he never told me. He never said a word. I was in my final year of college and didn't get home as often as I could have, what with me commuting almost 4 hours each way 3 days a week. Then, I lived on the reservation. But so did Sue. You'd have thought that Jake and I would have heard that Sue was dating Charlie. We usually heard all of the gossip on the reservation."

"I'm almost positive that Jake knew, love. He was thinking that at least Charlie had Sue at your funeral. It wasn't like it was a surprise that she was with him. I'm sorry that I didn't mention it at the time. I guess that I thought that you knew," Edward told me.

"It's okay. I've come to terms with it today. I just needed some time to work through it, time to myself. I want Charlie to be happy, and if Sue makes Charlie happy, then I'm all for them. Charlie has spent too much of his life alone. He deserves to spend his twilight years with someone who loves him and will take care of him. It's not like Charlie has a lot of money for her to marry him for," I said.

"Well, Bella. It's good to hear that you are okay. I was honestly getting worried when you didn't come back sooner. I was about to send Carlisle after you," Esme said.

"Thanks for caring, Mom," I said.

"Do you realize that that was the first time that you have called me Mom?" Esme asked.

"No, I don't guess that I realized it. It is strange calling you and Carlisle Mom and Dad when my Mom and Dad are still living. I guess that I have to get used to it, though. We do have the student teacher conferences tomorrow night, don't we?" I asked. "We're supposed to have been adopted for the past several years, so I'm supposed to be used to it by now. I'll work harder on it."

"Yeah, it is easier for the others. We have been their only Mom and Dad for going on 50 years for Alice and Jasper, the last to join us. Edward has known us as Mom and Dad for the past 70 years," Carlisle said.

"Well, I'll watch what I say. I'll try to do better on all accounts. I've wanted to be a part of this family for so long, I didn't think that it would be this much of an adjustment. Please, all of you, just bear with me a little bit longer. I know that I can adapt to this family and your way of life."

"We know that you can, too, love. We have faith in you," Edward said as he took my hand in his and pulled me up. "Right now, though, I'm going to take you upstairs and enjoy some private time with you. I've missed you today. Besides, you have homework to do."

Sluggishly, I followed him upstairs. He pulled out our books from his bookbag and told me what I'd missed in the classes that I'd missed. I made quick work of the assignments. We repacked the books, and he reminded me that I'd need a note to get me back in school tomorrow since I'd left without checking out. I listened for Esme's voice and heard her and Carlisle in their bedroom. I didn't want to disturb them, but Esme had heard Edward saying that I'd need a note, and she said, "It's okay, Bella. Come on up. You won't be disturbing anything."

I took a piece of paper and a pen with me. When I arrived at their door, I knocked. Esme called out for me to come in with laughter in her voice.  
"I told you to come on up. Why did you knock?" Esme asked.

"I always knocked on my parent's door before I entered," I said with a grin on my face.

"Okay, thank you for your thoughtfulness. Now, let's get that note." I gave her the piece of paper, and she wrote a note that said that I had to leave school due to a family emergency. When I asked her what kind of family emergency I could have been called out for when Jasper and Rose were able to stay at school, she looked at Carlisle, and he looked at her. They thought for several minutes and then Edward's voice rang out.

He said, "She had to sign some papers dealing with her trust that was set up by her parent's estate. They were time sensitive, and had to be signed by end of business yesterday. She still hasn't dealt well with the death of her parents and had a mini-meltdown after dealing with the attorney and had to be sedated."

"That'll work," Carlisle said.

"Okay, thank you," I said, as I left. I closed the door and headed back downstairs to our room. When I shut the door, Edward met me and turned me around, shoving me back up against the wall. "Anxious are we?"

"Mmmmm, yes," he murmured as his lips pressed against mine, his tongue seeking entry, and accomplishing their goal. His kiss was needy, seeking out all of the recesses in my mouth, searching for hidden coves, exploring every micrometer as if had been centuries since it had been there. I kissed him back, allowing my tongue to tickle the roof of his mouth, a spot that I, and only I, knew that he was sensitive at. He jerked back, and with a gleam in his eyes, he picked me up and carried me to our bed.

"You're going to pay for that little indiscretion, Mrs. Cullen," he said in a whisper only I could hear.

"What is my punishment going to be?" I whispered back to him, taking his face in my hands and pulling him into another kiss, this time, my tongue entering his mouth, searching every crevice for a new area that may have appeared since the last time that I had explored him.

"You'll see soon enough," he whispered into my ear, pulling away from my kiss and starting to pull off my clothes slowly, baring my body one small piece at a time. As he would remove an item of clothing, he would bring his lips to that area, kissing it, sucking it, paying it attention with his hands, massaging, teasing, or tickling it. I started to help him; he was going way too slow. I was getting so wet from his ministrations, and I wanted him to go faster, but when I tried to speed things up, he slapped my hands away. "I am doing this. Hands down, or you will make your punishment ten times worse," he whispered.

I put my hands down, but as he leaned over to suckle my breasts, I pushed my hips against his body and started moving against him, trying to get some well needed friction. He pulled his body away from me, but his hands started to unbutton my pants. He proceeded very slowly, letting his hands rest between my legs, my hips bucking against them. Then he moved his hands to my waist, gripping my pants and started to pull them down. His lips followed my pants down my legs, and he kissed them, down to the calves and back up. When he got to my hips again, he pressed his hand up against my panties.

"Look how wet you are for me," he whispered before taking the sides of my panties and ripping them apart. He pulled them off of me, and then he leaned down and spread my legs. He pressed his mouth to my wetness and licked the juices from between my lips. I groaned and bucked my hips into his face. "You like that, love?" he whispered. I nodded, and he used his tongue to flick the wonderful bundle of nerves between my lips. Then he caught it between his teeth and very gently bit it. I screamed his name as my orgasm took me. He looked me directly in the eye and grinned. Then he entered me using his tongue. He thrust his tongue as deep as he could get it to go. I thought that I was going to lose my mind. His fingers gently searched out my nerve bundle, and as his tongue made love to me, his fingers started to massage the nerve bundle, sending me over the edge with my second orgasm. I shook all over, crying out Edward's name, over and over again.

Then, Edward, pulled himself up to kiss me again. He entered me with his fingers, using them to stroke my walls, curling them against me when they were in me all the way. He was stroking that area that was super sensitive. He was moving so slowly, in and out, being sure to hit that spot, the one that made me lift my hips to meet him every time that his fingers hit it. Soon, I was meeting his fingers with every thrust. It didn't take long before my walls were clenching again, this time around his fingers. My third orgasm took all of my air away from me. I was gasping for air, trying to get a breath, when he entered me. I immediately went back up. My orgasm which was on the way down, peaked again when he removed his fingers and entered me with his manhood. He took me slowly, taking his time, making love to me passionately, entering me deeply, pulling my legs over his shoulders to give him better access, allowing him to get deeper within me. I called out his name, several times, as my orgasm peaked in intensity, sending me soaring over the world, out of my body, and into oblivion. When he came within me, his body shook, and then he collapsed onto me.

We just lay there for hours, until sunrise, each of us holding the other, neither of us having the energy to move. When the time came for us to get ready for school, we begrudgingly got out of bed and headed for the shower. We showered together, washing each other in the hot water, then we got dressed. I dressed in something that Alice would consider nice, and Edward dressed as he always did, beautifully. We went downstairs and joined the rest of the family. Our "siblings" looked at us with grins or smirks on their faces. If I could still blush, I would have.

"Edward, I just have one question," Emmett said. "If you were a virgin for 107 years, how the hell did you learn to pleasure a woman like that? Ow!" he said as he was hit in the back of the head by Rosalie, Alice, and Esme at the same time. We ignored Emmett's outburst and got into our cars. We arrived at school, and Edward walked me to the office to turn in my excuse.

"How can I help you?" Mrs. Copeland asked as we moved to the front of the line.

"I have an excuse for missing school yesterday after second period," I said, handing her the note from Esme.

"So, you are the only one of the six of you to have a family emergency?" Mrs. Copeland asked.

"Yes ma'am. It had to deal with my parents' estate. Jasper and Rosalie have already taken care of what they needed to take care of. The attorney needed me to take care of some things yesterday," I said. "I didn't handle it very well."

"Okay, take this slip to every class that you missed and have the teacher sign it. Turn it in at the end of the day," Mrs. Copeland said.

"Yes ma'am," I said.

Edward and I walked to our first period class. I could feel all of the guys looking at me for some reason. Edward seemed to tense up. We took our regular seats, and I looked at him with concern on my face. He just shook his head at me, so I turned to pay attention. We had left Lord of the Flies and had moved on to Oedipus. We were still reading it out loud in class. It was one of my favorite of the classics. It reminded me of watching History of the World Part I, the movie with Mel Brooks in it. I remember watching it with several friends who had gathered at Jacob's and my house. We were drinking, and most of us were drunk. I was the only one who laughed when Mel Brooks came upon the person who was playing Oedipus at a crossroads and said, "Oedipus, how are you doing you mother-fucker!" I remember thinking how sad it was that nobody else in the room got it. After all, Oedipus was the tragic hero who was destined to kill his father and marry his mother. Therefore, he was the penultimate mother-fucker of all time. I stifled a laugh just thinking of it.

We made it through the rest of the day. I turned in the classwork that I'd missed and the assigned homework. I got the paper signed for Mrs. Copeland, and we returned it at the end of the day. When we went to the parking lot to leave for home, there were several guys around our car. Emmett and the others had already left. Edward and I looked at each other.

"Can you hear what they're thinking?" I asked him in vampire volume.

"Yes, they want to ask you to the Halloween party. They think that with Emmett and Jasper gone, they will have a chance with just me being here," Edward said. "They don't think that we're really together. They think that it is just something that we've made up to keep guys from asking the three of you out."

"Weird. What in the world would ever give them that idea? Have we ever given them anything to think that we aren't together?" I asked.

"Not that I can think of," Edward said. "I can't see anything in their minds that would make them think that."

We continued to walk towards our car. When we got close to the car, the boys started to walk towards us. Edward moved in front of me to keep himself between them and me.

"We'd like to talk to Bella," one of the boys, I think his name was Joey, said.

"Okay, talk," Edward said.

"Privately," the boy said.

"Not going to happen," Edward said, holding out his arm to keep them away from me.

"Why not? We're not going to hurt her," another boy said.

"I'm not going to leave her. Anything that you have to say to her, you can say in front of me," Edward said.

"This is a private conversation. She doesn't need her brother to protect her," the second boy said.

"He's not my brother; he's my lover. Anything you need to say to me, you can say in front of him," I said.

"We understand that you are supposed to say that. It's taken us a while, but we've finally put two and two together. It doesn't make sense that the three of you girls would be with the three of you boys. The chances of that happening must be a million to one. This must be what your parents came up with to keep you from dating," the first boy said, coming closer to me.

"No, it isn't. Edward and I have been together for the past 5 years. He is my lover, and Mom and Dad know all about our relationship. They haven't tried to break any of us up. We even share a bedroom and a bed. We might as well be engaged," I said. "Now, if you will excuse us, we need to get home so that we can get our homework done before the teacher conferences tonight. Because we are new, our parents have to attend." I started to walk through the wall of boys towards the passenger seat. Edward walked with me, opening the door when we got there. Then he walked around to his side, and we drove off.

"Was that all right?" I asked him. "Did I say too much?"

"I don't know, Bella. I've never been in this situation before. We've never had this much attention," he answered me.

When we got home, we told everyone about the confrontation and what we'd told them. They were shocked that people have decided that our relationships that we've tried so hard to establish are being viewed as just farces put on by us to keep people from asking out on dates. Even Esme and Carlisle were in shock. This hadn't ever happened before.

Edward and I went upstairs with Alice and got all of our homework done. To say that none of us had learned anything so far this year was an understatement. I felt like I was losing my edge. I asked Edward if he thought that I would get into any trouble if I took his biochem book into class to read instead of just sitting there twiddling my thumbs. He said that it may look suspicious, but if I could do all of the work in class then I shouldn't get in trouble for it.

When a quarter of seven slid around, we all piled into our vehicles and headed back to the school. Carlisle and Esme started with Emmett, Rosalie, and Jasper. Of course we could hear every word that was being said about our brothers and sister. Emmett seemed to have a problem with paying attention in class. He really didn't have any problem with having the answers when they were able to get his attention. Nobody really had to tell Carlisle and Esme that Rosalie or Jasper were telling him the answers.

Rosalie was doing well in her classes. She completed her assignments, and her grades were good. She seemed to get along with her classmates. We all burst out laughing when her teacher said that.

Jasper was doing well in all of his classes except American History. He was continually getting into arguments with the teacher and causing disruptions in the class. Carlisle and Esme asked Jasper to leave the room for a minute. Then Carlisle told his teacher that Jasper was a historical prodigy. While he couldn't condone Jasper disrupting class, Jasper was usually correct when it came to American History from the Civil War forward. It was a passion of his, and he was actually published on the subject. There were certain battles of the Civil War in the Western Front on which Jasper is recognized as the leading expert in the country. The teacher may want to listen to Jasper when he speaks.

"Mr. and Mrs. Cullen, may I speak to you for a moment?" one of the boys from this afternoon said as Carlisle and Esme came down the hall from speaking with Jasper's history teacher. They had walked up to Edward, Alice, and me where we were waiting in front of Mrs. Anderson's door.

"Sure.....," Carlisle said.

"Joey. Joey Covington," he said.

"Sure, Joey. What can we help you with?" Carlisle asked.

"Well, a couple of the guys and me were wondering..." Joey began.

"I, a couple of the guys and I were wondering," Carlisle said.

"Yeah, I, a couple of the guys and I were wondering if we had you permission to ask Bella out. I know that she says that she and Edward are together. In fact, today she said that she and Edward are lovers and share not only a room, but they share a bed under your roof. But we suspect that they are just making that up to keep the other guys away. There isn't any way that you, as parents, would let two sixteen year olds sleep together in your home."

Edward pulled me into his arms. Carlisle looked at us and sighed. Then he turned to Joey and said, "I'm sorry to burst your bubble, Joey, but everything that Edward and Bella have told you is true. They are together, and they do share a room and a bed in my house. They have been together for about five years, not all of them intimately together. That has just happened within the past four months, but you can rest assured that their relationship is no trick to prevent you or any other boy from dating Bella. Bella is officially off of the market, as is Edward."

"You're not joking?" Joey said.

"No, I'm not joking. Edward and Bella are definitely together," Carlisle said, "as are Emmett and Rosalie and Jasper and Alice. Now, if you'll excuse us, we are late for a meeting."

Esme put her arm around my neck, and we went into Mrs. Anderson's room. She was staring at us as we entered and sat down in the chairs in front of her desk. "Mrs. Anderson, we're here for the conference about Edward, Bella, and Alice."

She shook her head and her eyes focused on her grade book. "Yes, Dr. Cullen, I'm sorry, but did I just hear you right? Your children are in relationships with each other? They are actually sharing a bed in your home?"

"Mrs. Anderson, yes, our six children, no teenagers, are in relationships with each other. They were neighbors before we adopted them. They started seeing each other about 5 years ago, and they developed close relationships. Emmett Cullen is with Rosalie Hale. Alice Cullen is with Jasper Hale. And Edward Cullen is with Bella Hale. Emmett, Alice, and Edward are my natural cousins. They lived next door to the Hales. Their parents were the best of friends. Their parents went to a social function together one night, and they were all killed in an automobile accident. We were the closest relatives to my cousins, and the Hales didn't have any living relatives. Instead of seeing them put into foster care and split up the relationships that were already formed, we, my wife and I, adopted all six of the kids. We have no intention of splitting up their relationships just because we've adopted them all."

"What a sad story. I can understand why you wouldn't want to break up their relationships, but to condone sexual relationships between them, allowing them to share rooms, isn't that just a little bit out of the ordinary?" she asked.

"Maybe a little unorthodox, but once you get to know these kids and get to know their maturity levels, you might understand the decisions that Esme and I have made. Now, about the kids?" Carlisle asked.

Mrs. Anderson began to talk about our grades. It seems that we all had perfect grades in her class. My writing was gifted in her words. She didn't know how the three of us could do so well in her class when none of us seemed to pay attention to what was going on. She said that she wanted to call attention to our inattentiveness, but when we were always prepared, she couldn't do it in good conscience.

Our meetings with our other teachers went just about word for word the same as the one with Mrs. Anderson. We were doing great in their classes. Our grades were perfect. They couldn't challenge us. We seemed perpetually bored. We could answer any question put to us. Our Algebra II teacher admitted to trying to stump us. She said that she caught us not paying attention, and she wrote a problem on the board that was several chapters ahead of what we were working on. Then she called on Alice to work it. Alice took one look at the board and worked it in her head, giving her the correct answer. She said that she almost fell out. We didn't tell her that Alice has two Master's Degrees in Mathematics. Alice probably has a more extensive math background than she has.

All in all, our reviews went very well. Carlisle and Esme both said that we needed to try to pay more attention in class. We all groaned. We knew that we wouldn't be paying any more attention than we were paying before. As long as we could answer the questions when asked, we felt that we were achieving enough by being there. Our day was finally over. Little did we know that events put in motion tonight would be affecting our lives for days to come.


	12. Chapter 12

Disclaimer: Stephenie Meyer owns it all.

Chapter 12: Turned In

We all made fun of Rosalie, saying that she got along with her classmates. "What has gotten into you, Rose," Alice said. "You never get along with anybody. Are you going soft? Have you found a human to follow you around like a little puppy."

"Can it, Alice, before I make you eat those words!" Rosalie said, as the rest of us laughed.

"Is that what you guys thought of me? That I was a little puppy following Edward around?" I asked them.

"Well, no, not really," Emmett said. "We thought that he was the puppy following you around." Everyone laughed, except Edward.

"I wasn't a puppy. I was a bloodhound!" Edward said. "I followed the smell of her blood."

"You should have seen him, Bella," Jasper said. "He would come home from school and argue with himself about whether he could see you or talk to you. He would say that he couldn't stay away from you, but that he was bad for you. It was an everyday thing. It was so sad that it was almost funny."

"Well, you guys were definitely not supportive during that time," Edward said. "The only one of you who was any kind of help at all was Alice, and let's face it, sometimes Alice's help isn't help."

"Well, that's the thanks that I get. I saw that Bella would be joining us. I knew that we would be fast friends, and I wanted for you to get on with it. I knew that she was the only woman that you would ever love, Edward, and to tell you the truth, I was ready for you to find her. You were alone way too long," Alice said.

"Now that's the truth," Esme said, joining in the conversation. "I didn't know how it would be to have a human around the house, but the first time that I met Bella, I couldn't help but fall in love with her. I knew that she would eventually join this family, and I don't have Alice's foresight. I only had to see the way that Edward looked into her eyes."

"But Edward had to be stubborn, and we almost lost her," Emmett said. "When we came back, and I found out that you had married Jacob Black of all dogs, I almost passed out."

"Emmett, you know that we can't pass out," Rosalie said.

"Well, that's why I said almost. Duh!" Emmett said.

"Anyway, when Alice called that first night and told us that Edward was staying over at Bella's apartment, I was so pumped. Oops, I wasn't supposed to tell that you called us. Sorry Alice," Emmett said.

"Um, that's okay, Em. I think that they'll be okay with it, seeing as they're together," Alice said.

"Well, I have to admit that we were hopeful that the two of you would get together. We just didn't feel like it would happen in one day, not that I'm upset about that," Esme said.

"When I saw him, I fainted. I woke up in him arms. Then, when he and Alice showed up at my apartment to study, I felt drawn to him. When the others left, he stayed and we talked all night long. Well, we talked until he made me go to sleep," I said.

"You expect us to believe that you only talked?" Emmett asked.

"This is Edward that we're talking about," I said.

"Yeah, okay, point taken," Emmett said, and we all laughed again. Edward pouted, and I reached up and kissed him to make it up to him.

"Face it, Edward. If you knew then what you know now about how sex feels, would you have told Bella no for so long?" Emmett asked.  
"Yeah, I'd like to know that as well," I asked.

"Well, that's a very hard question to answer. I wasn't raised to participate in sex before marriage. That was very taboo in my time, but I do have to admit that it does feel spectacular. I honestly can't answer that question."

"Cop out!" Emmett shouted.

"Emmett, inside voice, please," Esme said, and we all laughed again.

We talked and joked for the rest of the night. When morning came, Carlisle was the first to have to go. He had the day shift at the hospital, and he had to be there at seven o'clock. Shortly after he left, we all went upstairs to get ready. We were all in a wonderful mood.

When we got to school, the six of us split into our two groups. Edward, Alice, and I went to English II and took our seats. We were happy and playful before the bell rang, keeping to ourselves. Mrs. Anderson pulled out her cell phone and stepped out of the room. Alice suddenly froze in one of her visions. Edward became very quiet, then his face became lined with worry. When her vision was over, she looked at Edward, and he said, "We've got to get out of here. Come on, before she gets back." He gathered up his books, and Alice did the same. I followed suite, though I didn't have a clue what was going on. We stood as a group and walked into the hallway. Once there, Edward said, "Emmett, Rosalie, Jasper, we have to go home, now. Meet us at the cars."

We turned and headed down the stairs and outside, into the parking lot. It took the others several minutes, but they eventually showed up. In the meanwhile, Edward had text messaged Carlisle at work and told him to come home, that Alice had a vision, and we needed to talk about it as a family. We got into the cars and left campus, again without checking out. We raced home, beating Carlisle by ten minutes. We were already sitting at the dinner table when he showed up.

"What's the big emergency?" Carlisle asked.

"Do you want to tell them, Alice? It was your vision," Edward asked.

"No, you go ahead. I don't think that I want to talk about it," Alice said.

"Mrs. Anderson stared at us when we came into the room this morning," Edward started. "At first, I didn't think anything of it, but she couldn't keep her eyes off of us. Her thoughts kept going back to the conversation that you had with her about Bella and me and our relationship. She kept thinking that the age of consent in Wisconsin is 18 years old, and that we're too young to make the decision to be together. She was upset by the fact that you and Esme condone our relationship and support it to the extent that you allow us to share a room. Then she got up and left the classroom. I didn't think anything of it, but Alice had a vision. The Department of Human Resources is going to pay us a visit this afternoon. They are going to be accompanied by the police. They are going to arrest you and Esme for six counts of Contributing to the Delinquency of a Minor, and they are going to put the six of us into foster homes."

All hell broke loose around the table. "Quiet!" Carlisle shouted, and the room fell silent. "Okay, does anyone have any suggestions?"

"We leave," Rosalie said. "We pack up and leave. We go somewhere else and start over again. This place isn't worth all of the trouble that we've had here. We pack up the cars with our clothes and the essentials, and we get the hell out of here."

Alice slipped into one of her visions. After several minutes, she said, "That won't work. They will put out an APB on us. When Carlisle applies for privileges at any hospital and they do a background check, they will find out that he is wanted in Wisconsin. He won't be able to join the staff at any hospital in the US again if we don't clear this up."

"What about changing papers? Change his date of birth?" Jasper asked. "Basically make him a brand new surgeon, right out of residency, with no experience, and only a few references."

"That would work except for two things," Edward said. "He's still married to Esme, and he still has six adopted children. I think that they'll put two and two together and realize that he is the same person. The only way that it would work is for him to go it alone, without Esme and without us."

"I'm not willing to give up my family. Not because of this. Not because the six of you are having to pretend that you are young and that you aren't married. I guess that we'll have to face the music, so to speak. What do we have to do to get ready for their visit?"

"Food. We need food in the refrigerator and in the cabinets," I said. "They'll check to see that we're fed."

"Okay, Bella. You're the most recent one to have been shopping. Can you take care of that?" Esme asked.

"Of course," I said. "I'll be happy to."

"What if we put the girls together and the boys together?" Edward asked.

"We have four bedrooms. One is ours," Carlisle motioned to Esme and himself, "The others have a king sized bed in them. How would we split you up? Three girls in one room, sharing a king sized bed? Three boys sharing a king sized bed? I'd already thought of that, but in reality, there is no way that it would work. If we went out and bought six twin beds, it would basically prove their point. I don't think that changing the sleeping arrangements will help us at all. We're just going to have to bite that bullet."

"Wait a minute. What if we just tell them that we are married? We can get Jenks to send us marriage licenses from Alaska, and this whole fiasco would be over," I said.

"Now that has possibilities. Alice?" Carlisle asked.

Alice was quiet for several minutes, looking ahead. Finally, she said, "It'll work, eventually. We'll tell them that the box with those papers was lost in the move, but we'll order copies immediately. They'll still arrest the two of you. It will be a Class A misdemeanor charge. Since we just moved here and don't have any roots in the community, they'll make you post bail in the amount of $10,000 each. They'll still break us up, but, as soon as the paperwork arrives confirming our marriages, all of the charges will be dropped. You two will receive a very public apology, and we'll be allowed to come home."

"Okay. First, will they take a check for the bail?" Carlisle asked.

"Yes, I believe that they will," Jasper said.

"Edward, how much do Esme and I have in our personal account?" Carlisle asked.

"You have $75,000 as of your last statement," Edward said.

"Great. Second, Jasper, get in touch with Jenks. We not only need a copy of the marriage licenses, we need him to get them filed with the Alaska Bureau of Vital Statistics. They may be cunning enough to send for copies themselves. Make it worth his while."

"Yes sir," Jasper said. "Edward, which account do I need to wire the money out of?"

"I'll give you the account number when we're through," Edward said.

"Third, how will you be split up? Will you be able to hunt? You should probably go before they get here. How will we explain you being out of school today? What about sunny days?" Carlisle asked.

"The girls will be placed together, and the boys will be placed together. None of us will be near woods. We'll have to probably hunt right after school in the woods bordering the school property. I think that will be the easiest. Today, we can say that one of your aunts has had a heart attack, and we are waiting on word whether we need to go home or not, and as for sunny days, we will just have to pretend that we are sick. We'll have to make it look good," Alice said.

"Okay, then. Let's get set up," Carlisle said.

I gave Edward a kiss as he started to go with Jasper to get the account number that he needed. Edward took care of all of our finances, with Alice's foresight of course. He made sure that we all had enough money in our personal accounts, and he took care of all of our savings accounts, investments, and international accounts. Our wealth was beyond my comprehension. He tried to walk me through some of our family investments in the past, but it was way over my head from the second word on.

Alice and I piled into the Volvo and went to the local supermarket. We stocked up on the usual condiments as well as things generally found in most stocked kitchens such as canned vegetables, cereals, bread, and frozen foods. We left the store with three buggy fulls. When we got home, the boys helped us unload the groceries while we unpacked them into the kitchen.

While we were gone, Carlisle and Esme went hunting. Since they would be spending an unknown time in jail, they needed to be completely satiated. When the kitchen was full, the rest of us went hunting. I was worried that it may be the last time that I got to spend with Edward for a while, so after we fed, we broke off from the others. We ran into a thicket and fell into each others arms. We held each other tightly, not wanting to let go. We kissed each other, taking our time to feel each other's needs. We made love slowly, caressing each other, taking time to feel every moment, every tantalizing sensation that our bodies made as they moved together, becoming one for what may be the last time in what will feel like forever. What should have been a symbol of love was instead bittersweet.

After our love making was complete, we silently dressed. We held each other as if to let go meant that we were accepting the inevitable separation that we knew was heading our way. When we looked at the time, we knew that the time had arrived. We needed to be there to support Carlisle and Esme. We looked at each other, and after another kiss, we ran back to the house. As we approached the backyard, we slowed to a walk. We listened for other voices, and to our relief, the only voices that we heard were our family's. We were the last ones to return. We did hear three unfamiliar cars pull into our driveway, though. We entered the living room through the back entrance and took a seat on our love seat.

As the cars pulled to a stop in front of the porch, we all took deep breaths. Considering that we didn't need to breath, it seemed to me to be a strange thing to do. Just one more drawback from our human days. All too soon, there was a knock at the door. Carlisle stood and went to answer it. Soon he came back into the living room, followed by two women and a uniformed police officer. Esme stood as he came to her side.

"Mrs. Daniels, Mrs. Lewis, Officer Samuels, this is my wife, Esme. These are our children, Emmett Cullen and Rosalie Hale, Jasper Hale and Alice Cullen, and Edward Cullen and Bella Hale. Won't you please have a seat," Carlisle said, motioning to the couch that was unoccupied. They took a seat and looked at Carlisle. "Now, how may we help you?"

The one that was introduced as Mrs. Daniels spoke first, "May I ask why the children aren't in school today?"

"Certainly, we received a call this morning that one of my aunts has had a severe heart attack. We are waiting for news on her condition. We may have to leave to go home suddenly. At our last call, she wasn't expected to make it," Carlisle said with the appropriate amount of grief in his voice.

"I'm sorry to hear that," Mrs. Daniels said.

"Thank you," Carlisle said. "We have, as a family, been very close to her. May I ask why you are here?"

"Yes, we received a report this morning concerning your family. We are here to investigate the accusations," Mrs. Daniels said.

"What kind of accusations, if I may ask?" Carlisle asked.

"You and your wife have been accused of allowing your minor children to have sexual relationships with your knowledge and approval in your home," Mrs. Daniels said. "It has been reported that your children have stated to more than one person at school that they are in relationships with each other and share bedrooms at home. Is this true?"  
Carlisle looked at Esme, and then he said, "Yes, it is true. They aren't true brothers and sisters. We adopted them when their parents passed away. They were involved before their parents were killed. Esme and I have no intention of breaking up their relationships."

"Who is with whom?" Mrs. Daniels asked.

We all laughed. "Kids, be polite," Esme said.

"They are sitting with their mates," Carlisle said with a smile on his face.

"It is illegal for people under age 18 to be sexually active in the state of Wisconsin unless they are married. The age of consent in Wisconsin is 18 years old. Therefore, each of these children are breaking the law by sleeping together, and you and your wife are contributing to the delinquency of minors," Mrs. Daniels said.

Carlisle looked at each of us, then he said, "I guess that you guys are going to have to tell them. You aren't going to be able to keep it secret any longer. I never understood why you were trying to."

"What secret?" Mrs. Daniels asked.

"We are married," Edward said. "All of us. Emmett and Rosalie got married first. Then Jasper and Alice. Bella and I got married in August."

"Sure, as if I would believe that. What reason would you have to get married so young?" Mrs. Daniels asked.

"Why not? We are in love, and we have been together for over five years. Our parents all got married young. Carlisle and Esme got married young, and they are one of the happiest couples that we've ever seen. We just had to wait until Bella and I turned sixteen. That's the legal age with parental consent in Alaska."

"Where are your marriage licenses?" asked Mrs. Daniels.

"They were lost in the move along with some of our banking records. A box got lost," Jasper said.

"How convenient," Mrs. Daniels said.

"Are you calling me a liar?" Jasper said, standing up from his seat.

"No, son, I'm just saying that it's awful convenient that the only box that got lost during your move from Alaska to here was the one box that had your marriage certificates in it," Mrs. Daniels said.

"I never said that it was the only box that got misplaced. I said that the box with our marriage licenses in it was misplaced. We lost 9 boxes total, I believe," Jasper said.

"Where are your wedding rings?" Mrs. Daniels asked.

"Ours are upstairs, and so are Jasper's and Alice's. Edward and Bella haven't gotten their's yet," Emmett said. "Would you like to see them?"  
"Actually, yes, I would like to see them," Mrs. Daniels said. Rosalie and Alice went upstairs and got their wedding bands. When they brought them downstairs, Mrs. Daniels looked at them.

"These could very easily be your parents' wedding bands. That would explain why the two oldest children from each family have wedding bands and the youngest from each family doesn't," she said. "I'm not convinced. Until I have a certified copy of marriage licenses in my hand, I am not going to believe this ruse. Mr. and Mrs. Cullen, it is my understanding that you readily agree that these children are having sexual relationships within your house with your knowledge and support."

"Yes, that is true," Carlisle said, and Esme nodded her agreement.

"In that case, I have no choice but to remove these children from this home and place them in protective custody. They will be placed into foster care homes until such a time as this case can be settled," Mrs. Daniels said. "Officer Samuels, do your duty."

"What! No way. We're not leaving Carlisle and Esme," Emmett said, rising out of his chair. He stood a good half a foot taller than the police officer who stood at the same time.

"Nuh huh, we're not going to go to some foster care home. Our home is here," Alice said, backing away from Mrs. Daniels who stood when Emmett stood.

"Everybody calm down," Esme said. "I'm sure that we can work this out." Emmett and Alice sat back down.

Officer Samuels walked over to Esme and Carlisle. "Esme Cullen, Carlisle Cullen. You are under arrest for contributing to the delinquency of minors. You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to have an attorney present during questioning. If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be provided for you by the court. Do you understand these statements as I have explained them to you?"

"Yes," Carlisle said.

"Yes," Esme said.

Officer Samuels told them to turn around. Then he put handcuffs on both of them.

"You can't do that. They haven't done anything wrong," I said, running at the officer. Edward and Jasper jumped up and ran to intercept me. The two of them managed to hold me back. I pulled away from them and ran upstairs to our room and locked myself inside.

Mrs. Lewis followed me upstairs and tried to follow me into my room. When she tried the door, she found it locked. "This one has locked herself in a room," she called downstairs.

Mrs. Daniels climbed the stairs and knocked on the door. I was by the window watching them lead Carlisle and Esme to the police car. I said, "I'm so sorry Carlisle, Esme. I know that this is my fault. I opened my big mouth at school. Please forgive me." Carlisle looked up at me in the window and nodded his head. Esme just smiled at me. I felt the fury inside of me start to build. I had done this to my new parents. The two who had taken me in and loved me as their own daughter were being hauled off as cattle would be, shackled and herded. The fury rose, and a growl escaped from my lips.

"Young lady, don't make this any worse than it already is. Open this door," Mrs. Daniels said.

I watched as Officer Samuels shoved Esme, forcing her head down and pushing her towards the backseat. My growl was taking over my body. I was on the prowl in front of my window.

"Young lady. You do not have a choice about this. We have the authority given to us by the legislature to remove you from this home and to put you into a home where you will not be allowed to run amuck. Until you reach the age of your majority, which in Wisconsin is the age of 18, you are under the authority of the Department of Human Services and the Juvenile Courts. Now, you will open this door voluntarily, or we will use force," Mrs. Daniels said.

"Oh Shit!" Edward and Alice swore at the same time. They jumped out of their seats and ran for the front door just as I broke through the bedroom window and landed lithely on the ground already entering my sprint towards Officer Samuels. My hands were inches from grabbing him by the throat when Edward hit my body at full vampire speed knocking me off of my target and into the woods in the front of our house. We rolled when we hit the ground, and though Edward had me wrapped in his arms, I easily stepped out of his grip, turning to growl at him before turning back to spring towards the officer. I took a step, and Alice hit me in the legs. I easily side-stepped her, but was immediately hit from the front by Jasper and Emmett who each grabbed an arm and from behind by Edward who had managed to regain his feet and had grabbed me by the legs. I was lifted into the air, and Alice and Rosalie told the guys to carry me into the woods in the back of the house. They were thicker, and we were more familiar with them.

I fought them all of the way. I was growling and hissing. I was thrashing around, trying to get my arms and legs free. When they had me well into the back woods, Jasper sent over a calming wave which eased my fury to a slight extent. Emmett and Jasper were able to let me go, and Edward was able to restrain me by himself. The others continued to surround me, but backed off to give me some breathing room.

"Bella, love, are you okay?" Edward asked me, holding me closely to his body, rocking me back and forth.

I was still angry, and I couldn't speak yet. I opened my mouth to speak, and only a growl came out.

"Calm down. Carlisle and Esme are going to be okay. We knew what was going to happen. They knew what was going to happen. This is not your fault. This is everyone's fault. Sometimes shit happens. We can't attack the policeman. He is only doing his job, just like Charlie does his job. Calm down, love. Take slow, deep breaths," Edward said, slowly rubbing my back, soothing me.

My breathing slowed down, and I began to calm myself, with Jasper's help. I turned my face into Edward's shoulder and started to cry. Of course there were no tears. "I'm so sorry. I don't know what came over me."

"It's okay, love. You are still a newborn. I think that we allow ourselves to forget that because you are doing so remarkably well. You got angry at the situation, and your newborn instincts took over. I'm just glad that Alice saw what was going to happen in time for us to stop you. Killing that police officer would have been very hard to cover up."

"Children, you had better come back here, this instant. You don't want to make things worse on your parents, do you?" Mrs. Daniels called out from the front of the house. "If you don't get back here at once, your parents will appear to not have control of you."

"That is utterly ridiculous," I called out. "You are the ones who have lost control of us."

"Bella, you need to calm down. She's telling the truth. If we don't cooperate, things will go worse on Carlisle and Esme," Alice said.

"Come on, love. Let's get it together. Stand up," Edward said. "Why don't the rest of you go on. Let me stay here with Bella for a little while longer. Tell them that we'll be around in a little while. Alice, would you pack a bag for Bella and me?"

"Sure, no problem, Edward." She and the rest on them started walking around the house at human speed. We could hear Alice telling Mrs. Daniels that Edward and I needed just a little bit of private time to get it together. She was going to go into the house and pack us all some clothes to take with us to the foster homes that we would be going to.

"Absolutely not. Those two need to be chaperoned at all times. Mrs. Lewis, go around back and make sure that they aren't doing anything that they shouldn't be doing," Mrs. Daniels said.

"Bella, we're about to have company. Can you deal with it, or do we need to go?" Edward asked me, his arms still tightly around my body.

"I, I don't know," I answered him truthfully. "I think that I'm okay."

"Alright, we'll try it," he said. We sat there in the woods, me in his lap. He buried his chin in my neck as he kissed me behind my ear.

"Bella, Edward, where are you?" Mrs. Lewis called out as she came into the back yard.

"Over here," Edward called out. She walked into the woods towards his voice. As she came nearer, I became more and more tense, and a growl began to form in the depths of my chest. He said, "Jasper, we need you," and then he started humming my lullaby.

She approached us and said, "That is not appropriate, young lady. You should not be in that young man's lap. Get off of his lap this instant." At the same time, she caught her foot on a root and fell towards us. I bounded out of Edward's lap, ripping myself out of his arms, and catapulted myself towards her. I caught her around the shoulders and slung her into the ground. As I leaned in for the kill, Edward hurled himself between us. As I bit down on what I thought was her neck, I instead punctured Edward's shoulder. He let out a roar as my teeth sunk in, and my venom entered his skin.

As I registered his voice, I felt myself propelled into the air, landing fifteen feet into the woods, striking a tree and sending it crashing to the ground. As I leaped onto my feet, I was seized by two sets of hands and pulled deep into the woods. I couldn't tell who my abductors were, but because of the calming wave that I felt washing over me, I knew that one of them was Jasper. When we had gone several miles into the forest, I felt them slowing. I was gently lowered to the ground, but the hands that bound my wrists didn't loosen in the slightest.

"Bella, darlin', you've gotta calm down," Jasper's voice said from behind me.

I looked all around me, not knowing where I was, confusion surrounding me. Who was holding me? I knew Jasper was here. Who else had me? "Jasper, what? Who? Where's Edward?"

"Bella, you bit Edward. He's still back at the house. He's taking care of Mrs. Lewis. You threw her to the ground and came within an inch of draining her. As it is, she is unconscious. Edward and Alice are seeing to her," Jasper said.

"Oh my God!" I said. I sank down into a heap. I had hurt Edward. I started to sob, my chest rising and falling with the effort. The hands which had held onto me so tightly loosened.

"Bella, it's going to be alright," Emmett's voice whispered into my ear. "Edward is going to be okay. He's not hurt that badly." He wrapped me in his large arms and pulled me close. He started to stroke my back as I cried.

Jasper continued to ease my emotions, and he ran his fingers through my hair. "Bella, you're putting too much pressure on yourself. You need to relax. You are not responsible for the problems that our family is going through. You need to go with the flow. Nothing is going to go wrong. We will go to these houses for a couple of days. Jenks said that he could have the licenses to us in three days. That is the extent that we should have to live with these people. You are strong enough to do anything for three days, Bella. You are the strongest one of all of us. You have no blood lust. You have been able to adjust into society within a month of your change. Bella, your strength has been an inspiration to me. I know that you can do this. Just let go of your anger," he said.

I looked up at him and smiled. I knew that what he said was true. I could do it. I knew that I could. I stood up, and they let me. I shook myself off. I started to walk back the way that we'd come. I thought as I walked. I thought about the last time that I'd lost it. Mrs. Lewis was complaining that I was sitting in Edward's lap. That angered me. Should it have? Maybe, maybe not. I don't think that in any other situation it would have made me as angry as it did, though. Mrs. Daniels was being such a total bitch that I was taking things out on Mrs. Lewis. Bottom line, though, was that Edward and I weren't doing anything improper. Then when she tripped, all that I saw was her lunging towards Edward and me. That was when I lost it. I needed to protect Edward, but instead, I just ended up hurting him. I had hurt my husband, my other half.

I stopped walking as my grief overcame me. I pounded on the nearest tree, knocking it to the ground. Then I hit the next, and the next. Jasper's calming wave came over me, and I turned around to him and shook my head. "No, Jazz, I need to feel this. Let me work through it on my own." I felt the calm leave, and my grief filled me again. I leaned into a rather large tree, and beat my head into it.

I felt a hand come between my head and the tree and another hand wrap around my waist. "Love, enough of that. Turn around." I did as I was asked and barely noticed as Emmett and Jasper left into the woods. Edward met my lips with his own, and he lifted me into his arms. "Love, I'm alright," he said as he gently lowered me to the ground. He kissed my face, lingering around my ears. Then he nuzzled down into my neck, kissing me as he went. He slowly raised my shirt, kissing the crevice between my breasts as his hands unfastened my jeans. He lowered them with one motion, and his hand found my wet entrance. He gently entered me with his fingers, finding that spot that only he knew how to finesse to get just the reaction that he was looking for. It didn't take long for me to fall over the edge of that precipice that allowed me to experience a little bit of heaven.

"Make love to me," I whispered, reaching down to unbutton his jeans.

His hands caught mine, and he shook his head. "No, Bella, love. We don't have time. I don't want to just have sex with you. We have to get back, now, but I wanted to give you something for you to concentrate on when we get back. I wanted to give you just a little part of me to carry with you."

He stood up and helped me get dressed. He kissed me again, and then, taking my hand in his, we started to run back towards the house. When we were within one hundred yards of the back yard, we started to walk. We heard all of the others in the living room, so we entered the house through the back door. Everyone looked at me as if to ask if I was all right. I smiled at them, hopefully reassuring them.

"Just where have you two been?" Mrs. Daniels asked, anger evident in her voice. Alice and Jasper looked at me.

"Getting one mind blowing orgasm," I said in vampire volume. All of the vampires in the room except for Edward and me burst out laughing.

"Did I say something funny?" Mrs. Daniels asked. "I don't think so. Now, answer my question."

"We were in the forest picking daises," Edward said, his face straight, not even the hint of a grin peeking through.

"I've never heard it called that before," Emmett said in vampire volume, and all of us laughed.

"I don't think that answer was so funny, young man. You all don't need to encourage that kind of behavior," Mrs. Daniels said. "Now, where were you two; the truth this time."

"We were in the forest. I was trying to calm Bella down," Edward said.

"But you ended up getting her all excited," Emmett said in vampire volume.

"You don't even have a clue how excited," I said back to him in vampire volume. They all laughed again.

"That's enough. I think that I've heard enough out of all of you. Mrs. Lewis and I have been talking about how to split all of you up, and she thought that you should go with your natural brothers and sisters. I think, however, that you shall go by gender," Mrs. Daniels said.

"What about our cars? We will need to take our cars so that we can get to school," Jasper said.

"Which one of you has a car?" Mrs. Lewis asked.

"All of us has our own transportation, except Bella. She won't let us buy her a car, yet," Jasper said.

"Each group will be allowed to take one vehicle," Mrs. Daniels said.

"Well, Bella can take the Volvo, and we can take Emmett's jeep. That will keep the two vehicles the same. We won't be introducing any new ones that way," Edward said, pulling out his keys and handing them to me.

At that moment, Edward's cell phone rang. He looked at the number and, with a questioning look, answered it. "Hello.... Carlisle....."

Mrs. Daniels reached for his phone. "You are not allowed to have any contact with them," she said.

"Yes, I can do that. No problem. Where do you need me to bring it to?.... Okay. I'll be there in ten minutes. See you then. Give Esme my love. Bye."

"You'll do no such thing," Mrs. Daniels said. "I said that you are to have no contact with them. Do you not understand plain English?"

"Carlisle had to give them his checkbook when they booked him and Esme. He is ready to make bail, but he can't get to his checkbook. I need to take him a new one. Can you guys take care of things here," Edward said, nodding towards me.

"We've got her," Jasper said, and the others nodded.

Edward turned towards me and said, "Stay calm. I'm going to be okay. I'm going to go take care of Carlisle and Esme, okay?" He kissed me on the cheek.

"Okay. Be careful," I said, moving towards Alice and Jasper.

Edward moved towards the stairs and Mrs. Daniels moved to intercept him. He easily side stepped her and swiftly, at a pace that was just a little too fast for a human, climbed the stairs. We heard him step into the small room that he used as an office. He went directly to get what he needed, then he came back to the head of the stairs. Mrs. Daniels was blocking his way down the stairs, so he jumped down from the balcony. He ran into the kitchen and grabbing the keys to his Aston Martin, and he left the house, going to the garage. Before Mrs. Daniels had come all the way down the stairs, he was already pealing out of the driveway.

Mrs. Daniels pulled out her cell phone and began to dial a number. Jasper walked up to her and took her cell phone away from her. "That isn't really necessary, now is it darlin'?" he asked.

"Just what do you think that you are doing? You have no right to touch my property. That is stealing. Did your parents not teach you anything?" Mrs. Daniels asked Jasper.

"Oh, yes ma'am, they did. They taught us not to hurt nice women like you two. Now, Edward will be back in about twenty minutes. He is just going to take Carlisle a checkbook. He is going straight to the courthouse, and then he is coming straight back. Now, we are all going to take seats here and wait on him. We aren't going to call anyone, and no one is going to get hurt here," Jasper said.

"Are you threatening me?" Mrs. Daniels asked.

"Oh, no ma'am. Carlisle and Esme wouldn't like it if I were to do that. Since I've been living with them, they've helped me learn not to threaten people. In my past life, the one before Carlisle and Esme took me in, though, I would probably be threatening you. In fact, you probably would be in a great deal of danger right now," Jasper said with a smile on his face.

"Are the rest of you going to let him talk to me that way?" Mrs. Daniels asked us.

"Well, what he is saying is true. In his past life, Jasper was known to get into, let's say, numerous altercations," Alice said. "However, since he has lived with Carlisle and Esme, they have helped him to control those impulses to react when things don't always go his way."

"Jasper is not threatening you. He is asking you nicely to sit down and wait for Edward to take care of the business that he needs to take of. He hasn't made an aggressive move towards you. He hasn't said anything that could be construed as threatening. Besides, he isn't talking about him hurting you. He is warning you about me hurting you. I'm kinda like the Hulk. You wouldn't like me when I'm angry, and if you do something to hurt Edward, I'll get angry," I said, still sitting down next to Alice. Jasper, still holding Mrs. Daniel's cell phone, came to sit next to me. Emmett came to stand behind me, putting his hands on my shoulders. Rosalie came towards me and sat in the floor, in front of my legs.

I started clenching my fists as Mrs. Daniels reached for Mrs. Lewis's cell phone. Rosalie stood up immediately and reached for it. Mrs. Daniels tried to pull it out of her reach, but Rosalie stepped closer to her, actually getting into her face and forcefully took it out of her hands. She came back and took her seat in front of me.

"Don't you ever learn?" I asked Mrs. Daniels. "Are you as stupid as you make out to be or are you just trying our patience?" I was opening and closing my hands with more consistency now. "Bella, go to your happy place. Remember the place that Edward gave you to go to," Alice said to me. I closed my eyes and remembered Edward's kisses, his caresses, his loving hands. I started to relax, partly because of my memories, partly because of Jasper.

"Thanks. That's better," I said. Then I heard the distinctive sound of the Aston Martin in the driveway. I stood up, and they let me. I went through the kitchen and outside to the garage. Three minutes later, Edward pulled into the garage and got out of the car. We put the car cover on her, and then we went into the house. We were holding hands as we walked into the living room.

"How were they?" Alice asked.

"I just ran in and out. Nobody saw me," he said.

The rest of us stood up, and we split into couples. We kissed each other good-bye, then we split into girls and guys. Rosalie gave Mrs. Lewis her cell phone back, and Jasper gave Mrs. Daniels hers back. Edward looked at them while they silently explained what was going on. He grinned, then laughed. I could only imagine that they were telling him about my Incredible Hulk imitation.

He looked up at Mrs. Daniels and said, "Okay, we're almost ready to go." He went upstairs for a couple of minutes. When he came downstairs, he went up to each of us. He asked us how much money we had on us, and if we had less than two hundred dollars, he gave us enough to bring us up to that amount. What he had left over, he took into the library and put into the safe. "Alright, everyone has gas money and spending money. Do you all have checkbooks?" We nodded. "Your balances are where I told Carlisle that his was this morning. I saw to it when I was out. Jasper, where are the documents coming to?"

"One copy is coming to Carlisle to this address, and one copy is coming to me at my post office box. That way, one of us will be able to put our hands on it," Jasper said.

"Bella, did you take care of the food that will spoil before we will get back?" he asked me.

"No, I didn't. Let me take care of that right now," I said, rushing into the kitchen. I opened the milk and poured it down the sink. I took all of the lunch meat and put it into a box. I returned to the living room. "We can take this by the local soup kitchen. There is no reason to let it go to waste."

"Okay, that is all that I have on my list. Does anyone else have anything?" Edward asked. Nobody said anything. "Get your books and your suitcases." Everyone picked up their bookbags and their suitcases, and Edward said, "Emmett and Bella will be driving. They will be following you. We're ready to go."

Mrs. Daniels looked at him with a questioning expression on her face. Then she said, "Girls, follow me. Boys follow Mrs. Lewis." We all followed them out of the house. Edward locked the door behind him. He and the boys walked to Emmett's jeep and climbed in. The girls and I went to Edward's Volvo, and I climbed into the driver's side. I had to move the seat forward, and I could see Edward cringe as I did so.

I followed Mrs. Daniels out of the driveway and through the streets to the house that would be our home for the next several days. I had no idea how we would make it through these next days without our mates and with humans. Only time will tell.


	13. Chapter 13

**Disclaimer: Stephenie Meyer owns all.**

**Chapter 13: Foster Care**

Mrs. Daniels led us through the streets to a middle class neighborhood. She pulled into a driveway of a house that appeared to be a split level plan. It was a nice house with a manicured lawn. There was a Buick in the driveway which appeared to be several years old. We pulled in behind it, and got out of the car. We went to the trunk and got out our bookbags and our suitcases. Mrs. Daniels waited for us to get our things together, then she walked to the front door and knocked. Rose, Alice, and I looked at each other. There was a rank, familiar odor clinging to the yard.

The door was answered by an older woman who looked to be in her early fifties. She had early salt and pepper hair which was long and pulled back into a pony tail. She didn't wear any make-up and wore a long sleeved shirt with a long skirt. Her skin was dark showing off her clearly Native American ancestry. She greeted Mrs. Daniels and looked at us with a smile on her face. Mrs. Daniels motioned for us to follow her into the house. The foul odor was stronger once we stepped inside.

We followed her into the living room, and she said, "Please, girls, have a seat." We sat down on her well used couch.

"This is Rosalie Hale and her sister, Bella Hale, and this is their sister, Alice Cullen. They have been temporarily removed from their adoptive parents. They have three brothers who have also been removed. They are not to have any physical contact with their brothers except in supervised situations. They may have phone contact with them according to any rules that you establish. They seem to have problems following directions, so watch them closely, especially Bella. She seems to be the main trouble maker. The others seem to follow her lead. Girls, this is Mrs. Jenkins," Mrs. Daniels said.

"I'm sure that there aren't going to be any problems," Mrs. Jenkins said. "May I ask why they were removed from their home?"

"Their parents were charged with contributing to the delinquency of minors, them in particular. They are involved in improper relationships with their brothers with their parents' knowledge and approval," Mrs. Daniels said.

"You're making our relationships sound so dirty," Alice said. "They're not dirty. And Jasper is not my brother. He is my husband, and we'll prove it to you when the marriage license arrives."

"What do you mean? You're married to your brother?" Mrs. Jenkins asked, shock evident on her face.

"No, you don't understand. Edward, Emmett, and I are brothers and sisters. Rose, Jasper, and Bella are brothers and sisters. We were neighbors before our parents died. We started dating each other, me and Jasper, Bella and Edward, and Rose and Emmett. Then our parents died in a car crash. Carlisle and Esme adopted all six of us to keep us from being separated. When we reached legal age, we were each married with Carlisle and Esme's approval. Our marriage licenses were lost in our move from Alaska. When the fact that we're all together got around the school, one of our teachers reported Carlisle and Esme to these freaks, and they flipped out."

"Well, it is grand that you are all married. That is what we should all strive to accomplish with our lives," Mrs. Jenkins said.

"Mrs. Jenkins, we don't believe that they are married. We believe that they are sleeping together illegally with their parents' approval," Mrs. Daniels said.

"Well, it is a good thing that your opinion doesn't count for shit then, isn't it," I said.

"Bella, we don't curse in my house. Please don't talk that way," Mrs. Jenkins said.

"I'm sorry. I'm afraid that Mrs. Daniels and I don't get along very well. She has pushed every one of my buttons today. I apologize if I've offended you, Mrs. Jenkins," I said.

"I see," said Mrs. Jenkins. "Bella, you are still the teenager in this relationship, and Mrs. Daniels is the adult. You must show her respect."

"Mrs. Jenkins, may I go to the restroom?" I asked.

"Sure, Bella. It is up the stairs and to the left. It is the first room on the left," Mrs. Jenkins said.

"Girls, care to come with?" I asked. Alice and Bella got up to come with me.

"I don't think that they need to go with you to use the restroom," Mrs. Jenkins said. They sat back down.

I got up and walked to the restroom. I walked inside and locked the door. I took out my cell phone and dialed Edward's number. "Hello, love. Is everything okay?" he said in vampire volume.

"No, Edward, there is a werewolf here. We smelled it when we first came up on the lawn, but it was faint. When we got into the house, though, the odor's strong. Whoever it is isn't here right now, but we don't have any idea when it'll be back," I said in vampire volume.

"Hold on, let me tell the others." I could hear him telling Emmett and Jasper, and then I heard their response. "Do you know where you are at?"

"Yeah, we're three blocks south of the school, down that curvy road, the third house on the left."

"Okay, I know the one that you're talking about. You guys stay in your rooms until they are asleep. Then sneak out. Drive to the school and park in our usual places. Bring everything with you. We'll meet you there as soon as we can. If it shows up before they go to sleep, and it phases, kill it, then leave. Park at the school and start running. We'll catch up."

"Okay. I love you."

"I love you, too. Be careful Bella."

"I will." I hung up. I went to the door, and when I opened it, Mrs. Jenkins was standing there.

"Are you okay, dear?" she asked.

"Yes. I think so," I said.

"Let me show you to your room. I've already shown your sister's to it, so you may end up with the top bunk," she said as she led me down the hall to the door at the end of the hall.

"Who's room is that?" I asked, motioning to a room on the right side of the hall which reeked of werewolf.

"That's my son's room. He is in college. He commutes, so he'll be here later tonight," she said.

"Oh, that's nice," I said. I followed her into the room where Alice and Rose were sitting on one of the twin beds. They looked up when I walked in. There was concern on both of their faces. I nodded to them behind Mrs. Jenkins' back. When she left the room, we shut the door. In vampire talk, we started to talk about what was going on. "She told me that the room that just reeks of werewolf is her son's room. He is commuting to and from college. He will be here later tonight. Edward said for us to leave after they go to sleep tonight, but I don't think that he will sleep. Edward also said that if he phases, we are to kill him. He wants us to meet them in the school parking lot."

"Why don't we just leave now?" Rose asked.

"She'll call the police," Alice said. "We'll get caught, and they'll put us in juvey."

"Isn't that better than being in the same house as a werewolf?" Rose asked.

"No, he'll already know that we're here when he gets home. All he's going to have to do is to ask his mom where we are, then he and his pack can track us down," Alice said.

"Is he going to attack us?" I asked.

"I can't see werewolves, Bella, remember," Alice said.

"Oh, yeah, that's right," I said, hitting myself in the head. "So you can't see if we get away tonight or not."

"Nope, that means that he will have something to do with it," Alice said. "I don't know what. My visions just stop at supper time. I guess that is when he'll come home."

"Speaking of supper, what are we going to do when supper time comes around? Do you think that we'll get away with not eating anything, or do you think that we'll have to scarf down something?" Rosalie asked.

"I don't know, Rose. I really can't see that. I know that we have to sit at the table with them, but I can't tell if we are eating or not," Alice told her. "Hello," she said before her phone had a chance to ring. That still unnerved me to no end. "Hi Jazzy. No, we're in our room, alone. We can talk.... No, he isn't here, yet....Mrs. Jenkins is obviously Native American. She told Bella that her son is away at college, but he will be back later tonight. My visions go away during supper, so that is when I suppose that he will come back. I think that we'll be okay, after all, he should be the only one, and we should have the element of surprise. We should have the numbers on him, three to one. We'll call you when we know what is happening..... That is a good idea.....Jasper and the guys want us to keep one of our cells on with them on the line during supper, that way they can hear what is going on. I think that it is a good idea. I'll keep mine on and in my front pocket. That way you can hear everything. Okay, Jazz. I love you, too. I'll call you when we go downstairs. Bye."

I looked at my watch. It was already 5 o'clock. It wouldn't be long now. I made sure that my purse was by the door. I didn't want to leave anything that had my address in it around here. My bookbag, empty since we left school so early this morning, could be left. It wouldn't be a great loss. My clothes, too, weren't a necessity. The only thing that they could be used for was tracking my scent. I would take them if I could, but if we were running for our lives, they could be easily replaced. I went to the window which looked over the front yard. It wasn't too high. If it came down to it, we could come up here and jump.

A voice from downstairs interrupted our discussion. Mrs. Jenkins was calling us to help her prepare supper. It had been almost a century since either Rosalie or Alice had been in a kitchen, so I told them to stay up here and continuing to go over possible plans and contingencies. I would go downstairs and help Mrs. Jenkins with supper. As I descended the stairs, I heard a car pull up in the driveway. It was too early for the werewolf to be home. Alice said that he couldn't be here until during supper. This must be the husband. I walked into the kitchen as he walked in through the garage door.

"Bella, I'd like to introduce you to my husband, Scott. Scott, this is one of the three young ladies who are going to be staying with us for a couple of days until they can sort out some family problems," Mrs. Jenkins said.

"Hello, Bella. It's nice to meet you," Mr. Jenkins said, holding out his hand towards me. I shook his hand, making sure not to squeeze it too tightly.

"It's nice to meet you, too," I said. "Thank you for having us. My sisters are upstairs taking a nap before supper. We've had a rather stressful day, so I let them sleep. I hope that's okay. I'll help you, Mrs. Jenkins," I said.

"That's fine, dear. We're going to have baked chicken with mashed potatoes and string beans. Do you think that you could peel some potatoes for me?" Mrs. Jenkins asked me.

"Sure. Where are they?" I asked. She pointed to a cabinet under the sink, and I pulled out a bag of potatoes. She opened a drawer and pulled out a knife which she handed to me. I started peeling the potatoes, and in no time, I had a pan full. I asked her if I had peeled enough, and she told me that she thought it was plenty. I emptied the sink of the peels and poured the potatoes into the sink to rinse them off. Then I cut them up into pieces so that they would cook more quickly. I put some water into them and set them on the stove to cook. I asked Mrs. Jenkins where the string beans were, and she directed me to the cabinet where I found two cans. She told me to open both cans, so I put them both on to simmer. She already had the chicken in the oven to bake.

Following her directions, I managed to set the table without breaking any of her dishes. When that was finished, it was time to mash the potatoes. I drained them and added milk. Then I used her potato masher, and in no time, I had a nice bowl full of homemade mashed potatoes. I poured up the string beans, and Mrs. Jenkins got the chicken out of the oven. Then she asked me to go get Alice and Rose up for supper.

I walked upstairs and into our room. I told them that supper was on the table, and Alice took out her cell phone and dialed Jasper's number. "It's time for supper. We've got to go downstairs now. He isn't here, yet. I love you, Jazz," Alice said.

"Tell Edward that I love him, too," I said.

"Same goes for Emmett," Rose said.

"They love you, too," Alice said. "Okay, you are going into my pocket now." Alice put her phone into her shirt pocket, and we all went downstairs.

"Alice, Rosalie, this is my husband, Scott. Scott, this is Alice, and this is Rosalie," Mrs. Jenkins said.

"Hi, Alice, Rosalie. It is nice to meet you. I met Bella earlier when I first got home. I want the three of you to make yourselves at home while you are here. I know that it can be very awkward when you are uprooted like you have been, and I don't want you to feel out of place while you are here."

"Thank you, Mr. Jenkins. That is very kind of you to say. It has been a very difficult day for the three of us," Alice said.

"Have you spoken with your brothers again?" Mrs. Jenkins asked.

"Yes ma'am. We spoke with them just before you called us for supper," Rose said.

"Oh, you have brothers as well?" Mr. Jenkins asked.

"Yes sir. We have three brothers," Alice said. "They are in another home several blocks from here."

"How are they adjusting?" Mrs. Jenkins asked.

"They are worried about us," Alice said. "They aren't very happy with the events of today."

"I think that I could understand that," Mr. Jenkins said. "I have always been very protective of my sister."

"They are a little closer than brothers and sisters," Mrs. Jenkins said, looking at her husband.

"What do you mean, closer?" Mr. Jenkins asked, a frown on his face.

"We were in relationships with each other before we were adopted by our current parents," I said. "We are not natural brothers and sisters, well, not all of us are."

"What do you mean?" Mr. Jenkins asked.

"Well, Jasper, Rose, and I are natural brothers and sisters. Jasper is with Alice. Rose is with Emmett. And I am with Edward. Alice, Emmett, and Edward are natural brothers and sisters. All six of us were adopted when our parents were killed in an automobile accident."

"What do you mean 'with'?" Mr. Jenkins asked.

"They say that they are all married. The state doesn't believe them which is why they were removed and separated," Mrs. Jenkins said.

"I see," Mr. Jenkins said, disapproval apparent in his voice.

I looked up at Alice and Rose. I could tell that they could hear the car pulling into the driveway just as I could. The door opened and closed. Then I could hear running footsteps. The door flew open, and someone yelled, "Mom, Dad, are you alright?" We tensed and got ready to spring if necessary.

"Andrew, we're in the dining room. What is wrong with you?" Mr. Jenkins called out.

A tall, muscular, dark skinned young man ran into the dining room, his face scrunched up in a grimace. "I was just worried about you," he said, his eyes locked on ours, looking back and forth from mine to Alice's to Rose's, his nose turned up, a look of utter disgust on his face.

"Honey, why would you be worried about us? Come on, sit down, you're late for supper. Let me introduce you to our house guests. They are going to be staying with us for the next several days. This is Bella. This is Rosalie. And this is Alice. Girls, this is our son, Andrew. Sometimes, when he isn't running around and screaming at the top of his voice, he is a nice young man. Son, I can't believe that you have embarrassed your father and me like this, especially with company here," Mrs. Jenkins said.

"No, they can't stay! You've taken in enough strangers into our house. One day, you are going to take in someone who's dangerous and not know it. It's one thing when they're little kids, but when they're this old, this is ridiculous! You don't even know anything about them!" Andrew yelled, keeping his eyes on us the whole time. He was visibly starting to shake, and we stood up, pushing our chairs back from the table.

"Andrew! Young man! That is quite enough! Who do you think that you are?! You do not come into my home and start telling me who I can invite into it!" Mrs. Jenkins said as she stood, her voice raised, her hands pressed into the table. "These young ladies have been nothing but kind since they have been here. I think that you owe them an apology! Now son!"

"Over my dead body! You have no idea what they are!" Andrew yelled, his eyes never leaving ours, his shaking becoming more pronounced.

"Pick up the phone," we heard from Alice's pocket. Alice got the phone and said, "What Jasper?"

We all heard him say at vampire speed, "You guys get the hell out of there. We're coming now. We'll meet you at the school."

We, as one, started moving towards the stairs. Mrs. Jenkins called out for us to stay where we were. She said that she was going to deal with her son, for us not to take anything that he said to heart. By the time that she had said all of that, we were in our room and had gathered all of our things. When we got back to the top of the stairs, we saw him at the foot of the stairs. He was growling in the depths of his throat.

"We're leaving," Alice said.

"You know that I can't let you do that," he said, the growl becoming more prominent.

"Don't challenge us. You won't win," she said. "We haven't hurt your family. Let us go, and nobody will get hurt."

"The rest of the pack is on their way," he said.

"Your parents don't know what you are. Are you willing for them to find out just to catch us?" Rose asked.

"Yes, you will not get away," he said.

"Then go ahead and phase because we're coming through," I said, just as his mother walked up behind him.

"What is she talking about? What about you don't we know, Andrew?" Mrs. Jenkins asked, taking his hand into hers.

"Yes, Andrew, why don't you explain to your dear mother that you are a werewolf on the side," I said as I came down the stairs, one step at a time, Alice and Rose following me. The closer that I got to Andrew, the worse his shaking got.

"Bella, you have the silliest imagination. Werewolf indeed," Mrs. Jenkins said. Andrew took his arm and pushed her behind him.

"That isn't all, Mrs. Jenkins, Andrew, here, thinks that we are vampires. I think that he must be overworked or something. Maybe he needs to lie down," I continued as I walked down one more step towards him.

"Bella, you and Alice and Rose go put your bags back upstairs. There is no need for you three to go anywhere. Andrew won't do anything to hurt you," Mrs. Jenkins said.

"We're sorry, Mrs. Jenkins, but we're not comfortable with Andrew here. He said that he called his friends over and that they are going to do things to us that won't be pleasant. I won't repeat what they're planning on doing to us. They aren't very nice," I said as we took one more step towards the bottom of the staircase.

Mrs. Jenkins popped Andrew on the back of the head, reminiscent of Rose popping Emmett a good one, and said, "I can't believe that Andrew would threaten a soul. His behavior this evening is so unlike him. I'll tell you what. If you girls will go back upstairs, I will send Andrew to sleep at one of his friend's houses until you are gone."

"We're sorry, but they'll know where we are. We just can't take that chance. We'd rather leave now and take our chances on our own," Alice said as we reached the bottom step. Andrew glared at us as we walked towards the door.

"We'll find you. Don't think that we won't. We know this area like the back of our hands. You won't be able to hide from us," Andrew said.

"Andrew Jenkins. What are you saying? Is what Bella said true? You are threatening them? Why, Andrew? This is not like you! I'm going to call the police," Mrs. Jenkins said.

Andrew caught her by the arm. "Mom, you don't understand. What she said is true. I am a werewolf, and I'm sworn to protect this town from their kind."

We were at the door, now, and there was a knock. We looked at each other and then at Andrew who had a smug smile on his face.

"Reinforcements," he said, grinning. He walked over to the door, beside us, and opened it. A rather large Native American young man entered the room. His face immediately grimaced, and he looked at us with shock on it.

"I was hoping that you were kidding, Andrew," he said. "The others are about ten minutes behind me."

"We were just leaving," I said, taking a step out of the door.

The new young man put out an arm to stop me. "I don't think that you are going to go anywhere except back inside to wait on the rest of our friends. We have business to discuss," he said.

"Kevin, where are your manners? Have you and Andrew gone totally out of your minds? Take your hands off of that young lady," Mrs. Jenkins said.

"That is no young lady, Mrs. Jenkins," Kevin said. "She is dangerous. Why don't you go back to supper and allow Andrew and me to take care of your house guests?"

"Take your hand off of her," a very familiar voice said from outside the doorway. I turned to see Edward approaching from across the yard. I knew that everything was about to be alright. I looked at Alice and Rose. Their eyes were showing a sign of relief as well.

The next second, Edward was at my side. He had Kevin by the neck, barely lifting him from the ground. Kevin released my arm. I took my things and hurried to the Volvo with Alice and Rose close on my heels. I could hear Edward whisper to Kevin, "If you two know what is good for you, you won't attempt to follow us." Then I could hear Kevin's gasp for air as Edward let him go.

They ran across the yard and got into Emmett's jeep. I peeled out of the driveway, following Emmett's lead. He drove to our house once we were sure that no one was following us. We went inside to see Carlisle and Esme. There was so much to share with them, and we needed their advice. At first, we couldn't find them, then we heard them. They were upstairs, having a really, really nice time.

"Carlisle, Esme. When you two get to a stopping point, we'd like to talk to you," Edward said. I don't know where he got the courage to interrupt them when they were so involved with each other. We heard a loud groan, and not the good type of groan either, then a sigh. In five minutes, they were dressed and downstairs.

"Jeesh, you'd think that getting arrested and having your children taken away from you and put into foster homes would allow you some private time to make love to your wife, but, Nooo, the children have to escape from their foster homes and come home to interrupt. What is this world coming to?" Carlisle said, fighting to keep a smile off of his face.

"Life just wasn't as much fun without you there to help us escape from the werewolves that were breathing down our necks, Dad," I said, running into his arms for a hug.

"Wait, did I just hear you right? Werewolves? Here, in Black River Falls? We've never run into any werewolves here before," Carlisle said, as he returned my hug.

"Well, it seems that our foster parents have a son named Andrew who is a werewolf," Alice said. "He belongs to a pack. We don't know exactly how strong this pack is."

"Of all the luck. Of all of the families that you could have been placed with," Carlisle said.

"What should we do now?" Edward asked.

"Well, I think that you boys should get back to your foster home. That way, you won't get into trouble. I'll call DHS and tell Mrs. Daniels," Carlisle started to say.

"You'd better call Mrs. Lewis," Edward said. "Bella and Mrs. Daniels don't get along so well." He went on to explain that though I don't have blood lust, that I do lose control of myself when I get angry. I was embarrassed when Edward started telling him how I went off on the police officer, but I was totally ashamed when Edward told them how I'd bitten him when I went off on Mrs. Lewis when she tripped and fell towards us.

"Bella, if that is all that you ever do as a newborn, you are still amazing. Don't let it get you down," Esme said, coming up to give me a hug. I hugged her back and buried my face in her hair. It felt good to finally have a mother.

"Before I go back to that home, I'd like to do one thing," Edward said. He pulled me into his arms and kissed me. I felt his longing to be with me. I recognized it, because it mirrored what I was feeling. I could have kissed him for an eternity, but eventually, Carlisle cleared his throat.

"Edward, I know that you and Bella are newlyweds, but you have to get back, son. I'm so sorry that this has happened, but rest assured that we are doing everything possible to get you two back together as soon as we possibly can," Carlisle said.

Edward broke the kiss and pulled away from me. His eyes locked with mine as he walked backwards out of the door. When I could no longer see him, I crumpled onto the floor. Esme came to me and took me into her arms. "Bella, it won't be long. Then he will be the one who is holding you and comforting you. Never forget that while he is your soul mate, you have the rest of us who love you, too. We'll get you through this separation, just like you'll get the rest of us through it. That's what family does."

I put my arms around her neck and gave her a kiss on the cheek. She truly was my mother. "Thanks, Mom. You're right. I'll be okay with everyone's help." I stood up and Alice and Rose came to give me girl hugs. I gave them girl hugs right back. We went to all sit together on the couch.

Carlisle went to get the portable phone. He took a card out of his pocket and dialed the number on it. After a couple of rings, Mrs. Lewis answered. He said, "Mrs. Lewis, this is Carlisle Cullen. We have a slight problem. I don't know if you have heard from the home that you placed the girls in, but there is a problem. Oh, you haven't. Well, maybe you'd better sit down. First of all, the girls are okay. They are here, with Esme and me, at our house. They ran from the house you placed them in about thirty minutes ago. It seems that everything was going well with the Jenkins's until their son, Andrew, came home. They were eating supper when he burst into the dining room yelling that the girls would have to go. He thought that they were a danger to his parents or some such nonsense. They went upstairs to their room, and he followed them. He told them that he was a werewolf and that he was a member of a pack of werewolves. He told them that he had already called his pack, as he called them, and that they were coming to destroy them. He thought that the girls were vampires and that it was his duty to tear their arms and legs off and burn their bodies. They called the boys who told them to get the hell out of there, then they gathered all of their things and tried to leave. When they were trying to get out of the door, one of Andrew's friends came in the door and grabbed Bella by the arm, preventing her from leaving. Edward and the boys arrived just in time to prevent the other boy from pulling Bella back into the house. They escorted the girls here, making sure that Andrew and that boy didn't follow them. The boys have gone back to their foster home, but the girls are here....They are really shaken up. They are really frightened. What if these boys come looking for them at school? Do we want to press charges? Well, I haven't thought about that. Girls, do you want to press charges? The one that grabbed you, Bella, he assaulted you. Andrew, he threatened all three of you. He's an adult, and you three are juveniles. According to Mrs. Lewis, he can be charged with disorderly conduct for threatening you. Okay." He hung up the phone. "Mrs. Lewis is on her way over here now. I think that it would be good to go ahead and press charges against Kevin for assault and Andrew for disorderly conduct. We will also get restraining orders against both of them. That way, maybe they will think twice about coming after the three of you. The location of the boys is secret, not even Esme and I know where they are. Therefore, they can't know where they are. They will have to be careful when leaving school to make sure that they aren't followed."

Ten minutes later, Mrs. Lewis showed up with a police officer in tow. It was a different officer from this morning. He introduced himself as Officer Taft. He took a seat on one of the love seats, and took notes while Alice, Rose, and I told him our story about what had happened from the time that we arrived at the Jenkins' home until the boys showed up to rescue us from Kevin and Andrew. He then asked us to accompany him back to the Jenkins' house to identify Kevin and Andrew. He told us that he would be with us the whole time, and he would ensure our safety. Mrs. Lewis told us that she had another home that we would be staying at, and that we could drive to the school parking lot where we could leave our car. She would drive us to the Jenkins' house for the identification, then she would take us back to our car so that we could follow her to our new foster home. That way, no one could follow us to our new home.

Carlisle agreed with the plan, so we gathered our stuff and loaded it into our car. By this time, it was pushing 10 o'clock. Carlisle and Esme gave us all hugs and walked us to our car. They wished us good luck and told us to call them when we got settled in. We followed Mrs. Lewis to the school parking lot. We climbed into her car, and we followed the police officer to Mrs. Jenkins' house. There were several more cars in the driveway now than when we left. The officer got out of his car and went to the front door. Mrs. Jenkins answered his knock. She went back inside and soon Andrew and Kevin came to the front door followed by five or six other young men, all of them appearing to be of Native American descent. The officer brought out several of the young men and had them stand in a line on the front porch of the house. He came back to his patrol car and shined a bright light on them. Then he came back to Mrs. Lewis' car and spoke to me through the window.

"Bella, do you recognize which boy assaulted you?" he asked me.

"Yes sir. It was the third one from the left. Andrew called him Kevin. I didn't hear his last name," I said.

"Do you two agree with Bella's choice?" Officer Taft asked Alice and Rose. They said that they did.

"Okay. Which one of those young men is Andrew?" Officer Taft asked.

"The fourth one from the left," we all said at the same time. "He's the one who threatened us," I added. "He tried to keep us from leaving."

"Okay. Thank you very much girls. I am going to make sure that these two don't bother three of you again," Officer Taft said.

"What about their friends?" Rose asked. "Andrew said that he was calling all of his friends and that they would help him hurt us."

"I'll be giving them a strong warning that they won't want to do that," Officer Taft reassured us. He went back to the boys. He walked up to Kevin and handcuffed him. Then he walked up to Andrew and handcuffed him. He read each boy their Miranda rights, then he walked them to the police car. He locked them into the back seat, then he returned to the other boys. He told them that Kevin and Andrew were arrested for threatening us and that they would be smart to forget everything that Kevin and Andrew were telling them. They should go home. If they tried to follow us, or if they tried to find us, they would also be arrested for harassment.

Mrs. Lewis turned her car around, and we drove off. Officer Taft stayed behind long enough to make sure that no one followed us. She took us to our car, and we changed vehicles. We followed her to our new foster home. It was several blocks over on the east side of the high school, not far from our home. The porch light was still on, and from what we could tell, the house was a single story, relatively small house. Mrs. Lewis led us to the door. A middle aged woman dressed in her nightgown answered the door after one knock.

"Hi, Mrs. Lewis. I've been waiting for you. Frank has already gone to bed. He has to be up at 5 o'clock in the morning," she said in a quiet voice.

"Hi, Mrs. Valentine. Thank you for allowing us to come over so late. This has been a really trying day for these girls," Mrs. Lewis said. We followed her into the living room. Mrs. Valentine motioned for us to have a seat. "This is Rosalie, Alice, and Bella," Mrs. Lewis said, motioning to each of us as she introduced us. "They were initially removed from their adoptive parents and their brothers this morning, and they were placed in another foster home. They were adjusting well, but when the foster parents' son came home from school, he and a friend of his kind of flipped out on them and started threatening them. They, with their brothers' help, escaped from the home and returned to their home. Then we had to report everything to the police. They have just come from identifying the young men who threatened them and assaulted Bella. I'm sure that they are exhausted. I don't expect that they will need to be here for more than a few days. I fully expect their parents to get the necessary paperwork together within that time period, and then everything will return to normal for them."

"Wonderful! It's a good thing that you expect things to work out. It is especially good that the only thing that you are expecting to need is paperwork. That will make everything relatively simple to clear up. In the meantime, my husband and I will be happy to share our home with you girls. Let me show you to your room. I hope that you don't mind sharing, but I only have the one extra room."

"That will be okay. No problem on our end," Alice said. We followed her down the hallway to a closed door on the left side of the hall. She opened the door, and we followed her inside the room. There were two sets of bunkbeds inside the room. We put our things down and looked at Mrs. Lewis.

"Mrs. Lewis, we missed school today, all of us did. Can you write us an excuse to cover us? We didn't get one from Carlisle or Esme before we had to leave them," I asked.

"Sure, Bella. Give me one of your notebooks," Mrs. Lewis said. I gave her one, and she wrote an excuse for all six of us.

"Girls, the restroom is across the hall," Mrs. Valentine said. "Try to get into bed as soon as you can. I know that you have had a long day, and morning will come early. What would you like for breakfast?"

"Oh, don't worry about us. We never eat breakfast. It makes us nauseated for the entire morning to eat early. We eat a big lunch at school," Alice said.

"Are you sure? I really don't mind. I get up to fix breakfast for Frank every morning so I'm already up," Mrs. Valentine said.

"Really, no thank you," Rose said.

"Girls, I'm going to leave you now. Please take my card. If you have any more problems, please call me," Mrs. Lewis said, handing each of us a business card. She and Mrs. Valentine left us alone, shutting the door after them.

"Well, we're here. What do you want to do all night?" I asked.

"Well, I guess we need to at least make a show of going to sleep," Alice said. So we changed into a large T-shirt and some boy shorts. Even Alice didn't think that our lingerie was appropriate to wear here. We turned off the light, and Alice and Rose took the lower bunks while I climbed on the top. We called Carlisle and told him that we were settled, and he connected us with the guys via three-way calling. We discussed the arrest of the two werewolves and the fact that Officer Taft made sure that none of the others followed us. We told them where we were, and the guys told us where they were. We talked about Carlisle and Esme's day. Carlisle said that he was suspended from the hospital until this was over. He said that he had never been more embarrassed in his life then when he had to call his supervisor and explain to him why he would be missing his shift this afternoon. I tried to apologize again, but none of them would hear of it.

"Why do you think that everything got so screwed up this time then? If it wasn't me or my fault, then what was it?" I asked.

"You know, Bella, I've been thinking about that," Carlisle said. "In an indirect way, it may be because you joined our family."

"Carlisle, wait just one minute," Edward started.

"Just hear me out, Edward. Before, no matter where we went, there were two couples and you. You were always the lone man out. Therefore, everyone could completely ignore Emmett and Rosalie and Jasper and Alice and focus all of their attention onto you. The girls could imagine themselves with you, and you know that they did, and the guys could envy you because all of the girls wanted you. When we moved here, for the first time ever, you guys moved here as three complete couples. Every one of you is beautiful. Now there wasn't one of you for the student body to focus their attention on, so they divided their attention on all six of you. You weren't able to fly under the radar like you have for so many years," Carlisle said.

"That makes sense," Edward said. "We're going to have to re-evaluate what we're doing and how we're doing it. I don't know if we're going to be able to go to high school in the future. There is too much lust on their part and jealousy on our part for that to be a very viable option unless we make some changes in the way we do high school. For instance, we could just plain start out married. Let them think what they will. Like you and Esme do. That way, there shouldn't be any reason for the student body to hit on our mates. What do the rest of you think?"

We tossed ideas around for the rest of the night. The conclusion that we came to was that when we moved again, we would all start school as married couples. We wouldn't use any cover stories. We would let the student body think what they wanted to think.

When we heard Frank's alarm go off, we said good-bye to our family and hung up the phone. We pretended to be asleep while he got dressed and got off to work. Then we got up. Rose got her shower and got dressed first, then Alice, then I did. We all went into the bathroom to do our make-up. We packed up all of our things, and took them out to our car, just in case everything got cleared up today. We said good-bye to Mrs. Valentine and got into the car. We drove to school and parked in our usual place. We didn't have to wait long until we saw Emmett's jeep come around the corner. We all looked like Alice, we were jumping up and down with excitement to see our mates.

When the guys had parked, they leaped out of the jeep and had gathered us into their arms. It felt so good to be back in Edward's arms. He kissed me so passionately, and I kissed him back. We were early for school, so there weren't many people in the parking lot. The ones that were there stared at all of us. I really wanted to skip school and take a side trip into the woods, but I knew that wouldn't be a good idea. At least I would be able to spend today with him. Who knew what tonight would bring?


	14. Chapter 14

**Disclaimer: Stephenie Meyer owns it all.**

**Chapter 14: Werewolves**

As the parking lot started to fill up, we decided to take our PDA's into the woods bordering the school, at least until the first bell rang. Technically, we were off of campus and the PDA rules of holding hands only wouldn't apply. Edward and I clung to each other as if we'd been apart for weeks instead of hours. Our kisses were passion filled, and our bodies were so close that not even a piece of paper could find purchase between us. I could feel his hard on through his clothes, and I knew that he could smell the moisture that had permeated my underwear. Given only a few more minutes before the confounded bell would ring, we would have enthusiastically headed deeper into the forest to "comfort each other" as only our mate would be able to do. However, the blasted bell did have to ring, and we did have to leave the sanctuary of the forest and enter the institution of learning that we were sentenced to attend for the next three years.

We walked through the parking lot, the target of our classmates' stares, yet again. We walked into the office, and I turned in the note that Mrs. Lewis had written for us the night before. Mrs. Copeland looked at it suspiciously, noting that the signature wasn't that of our parents. "This note isn't signed by your parents. I don't know if I can accept it. Let me check with Mr. Barnard." She went into his office, and I heard her say, "Mr. Barnard, something is going on in the Cullen house. The kids are here today with an excuse for being absent yesterday signed by Mrs. Lewis, you know, the DHS social worker. Have you heard anything about what is going on?"

"No, I haven't heard anything. Let me make some calls, and I'll see what I can find out," Mr. Barnard said.

"Do I accept their excuse? I've never had an excuse from a social worker before," she said.

"Let me see the note," he said. We heard him dial a number. "Hello. This is Mr. Bernard, principal of Black River Falls High School. May I speak with Mrs. Lewis, please?.... Mrs. Lewis, this is Mr. Barnard, Principal of Black River Falls High School. The Cullen kids and the Hale kids came in this morning with a school excuse for missing yesterday which was signed by you. All school notes must be signed by parents or guardians....Oh, I see. The state has taken temporary guardianship of all six of the children. Well, we need proof of temporary guardianship for their records here. Where are they staying? We will need to update their records for emergency contacts and such....Oh, I see. They are in foster homes. Will we be able to get those addresses for our records?...No, but what if we need to get in touch with their foster parents?... We call you. Okay. Well, is there anything that we need to do for them?...Okay, just keep them in regular classes as if nothing is going on. That we can do. Thank you, Mrs. Lewis. Good-bye." He hung up the phone. We just looked at each other. Well, they knew now. How far through the school would these rumors make it before the end of the day? "Mrs. Copeland, give them excused absence slips."

"Yes sir," she said, and she walked back out to the office proper. She wrote out the excuse slips and handed them to us. We thanked her and asked her if she would mark the excuse for an excused tardy since we had been in the office waiting when the second bell rang. She took the excuses back and marked the correct box. She gave them back to us, and we went to our lockers to get the books that we would need for the morning. Then we went to our first period class.

Edward, Alice, and I walked up stairs and knocked on our English II door. Mrs. Anderson came to answer the door which was locked when the second bell rang. We gave her our excuse for both the tardy and the absence. She looked at the papers and let us in. "Take your seats. We are continuing our study of Oedipus." We went to our seats and pulled out our books. We paid attention and were able to catch up relatively easily. When class was over, Mrs. Anderson said, "Edward, Alice, Bella, can you please stay for a moment?"

We looked at each other, and I started to get tense. She was the one who turned us in and caused all of us all of this trouble. I was breathing heavier, and I had started to have a small growl in the depths of my stomach. Edward pulled me into his arms and whispered into my ear, "Bella, be calm. This isn't worth getting upset over. She's not worth it. Just hold my hand and squeeze it if you need to. Heck, you can bite me again if you need to, just don't lose it here, okay." I nodded and took his hand in mine.

We walked up to her desk. She looked at us and asked, "How are you doing?"

What the hell? She turned us in, and now she's asking us how we're doing. "Positively shitty, thank you very much," I said.

Her face registered what I'd said, and a look of complete shock blanketed her face. "Excuse me?" she stuttered.

"No, I don't think that I can," I said. "Now, if that's all that you wanted, we have to get to our next class." We turned and walked out of the room as her next class walked in.

We walked to our Chemistry class. We entered just in time to hear one of our classmates tell those around her, "I swear it. I was asleep last night by the time that they got there, and they had already gone by the time that I got up, but Mom told me their names, and I swear it's them." One of the girls that she was talking to nudged her arm when she noticed us walking into the room. The girl looked up and immediately started blushing.

We took our absentee form to Mr. Williams, and he signed it. "I know that you didn't get word that we are having a test today on chapter 3, so you can take it tomorrow."

Edward looked at us, and we nodded. "There is no need to wait. We can take it today. I'm sure that it would make it easier on you, wouldn't it?"

"Yes, it would, but don't you need time to prepare for it?" Mr. Williams asked.

"No, not really. We study over the weekend and every night," Edward said.

"Well, if you're sure," Mr. Williams said.

"We're sure," Alice said.

We took our seats, and Mr. Williams passed out the exams. We took our time finishing the exam, but we were still the first ones finished with them. He graded our exams and then called Edward up to his desk.

Speaking in a low tone so that no one could hear him except for Alice and me, he said, "Edward, I don't mean to pry, and if you want me to mind my business, then just tell me so. You and your sisters have already missed a lot of my classes. There have been rumors going around school about your family. I'm not one who usually listens to rumors about students, but the teachers are talking about these rumors as well. Then, this morning, there is another rumor going around about why you and your sisters missed yesterday. I'm not asking you about the rumors. I just want you to know that I'm here if you or your sisters need someone to talk to about what is going on in your family. You see, I was a product of many foster homes when I was a child. I was finally adopted, but the family that adopted me wasn't all that great. I've lived a very non-traditional life. No one here, in this town, except for you now, knows anything about my past. I'd like to keep it that way, but if you ever need an ear to listen to your problems, then I'm here for you."

"We appreciate the offer, Mr. Williams, but we are in a very happy family. Esme and Carlisle are the best parents in the world. The problems that our family are going through right now are because of a teacher who stuck her nose in where it didn't belong. They will be settled in a couple of days with some paperwork that we had to send for."

"You know that if a teacher suspects that abuse or neglect is going on in a household, he or she is required by law to report that, just like a doctor is," Mr. Williams said.

"Yes, but there is no abuse or neglect going on in our household. We are well fed, clothed, and have a roof over our head. There is no physical, sexual, or psychological abuse going on in the house," Edward said. "As I understand the law, that is the extent of what teachers are required to report."

"If she didn't report abuse or neglect, what did she report, if I may ask?" Mr. Williams queried.

Edward glanced at Alice and me. We very subtly nodded our heads. If we were going to go with the marriage licenses to get us out of this situation, we might as well use them at school to ward off all of the boys and girls who were still trying to date the six of us. Edward shifted his eyes up and down, his signal to us that he understood and agreed, then he said, "She called DHS and reported that the six of us are sleeping together and that Carlisle and Esme know about it and condone it."

"You're sleeping with your sister?" Mr. William asked in a stunned whisper.

"No," Edward laughed. "Bella isn't my blood sister. We have been together for just over five years. Emmett and Rosalie have been together for several years longer than we have, and Jasper and Alice have been together longer than we have, but less time than Emmett and Rosalie. You see, the six of us were dating before our parents were killed in a car accident. Esme and Carlisle were kind enough to adopt all six of us to keep the state from breaking us up. As our relationships progressed, they were happy for us. They've never done anything to keep us apart. We are with our soulmates. As we came of age, they allowed us to marry. That's the paperwork that we're waiting on. Our marriage licenses were lost in the move."

"You're married? Why would you get married so young? Do you have children or something?" Mr. Williams asked.

Edward laughed again. "No. None of us has ever caused a wanted or unwanted pregnancy. We got married because we're in love. We want to spend every moment in our lives together. We want to hold each other all night long, and we want to do other things that married couples do. Our parents taught us certain morals that we adhered to and respected, and they made us make certain promises that we were bound by. So, we got married once we were allowed to. Bella and I just got married this August."

"Well, congratulations. Why did you enroll here with different last names?" Mr. Williams asked.

"The box with our Marriage Licenses in it was lost during the move. Their birth certificates are in their maiden names, and we didn't have anything to prove their new names," Edward explained.

"This whole production with you and your family would never have happened if the teacher in question would have just talked to you and your parents before calling DHS. What a shame!" Mr. Williams said.

"Carlisle and Esme explained the situation to her on Monday night at the teacher's conference," Edward said.

"You're kidding! This whole situation is so asinine. I can't believe that she interfered like that," Mr. Williams almost said out loud. He glanced at his watch and said, "Okay class. Time is up. Pass your papers to the front of each row. Homework is to read chapter 4." He got up and gathered all of the papers. He walked back to his desk and said, "Edward, I'm glad that we had this discussion. I'll keep your secret, and I'm asking you to keep mine."

"Of course. I'd never betray your trust," Edward said. The bell rang then signaling morning break. I picked up Edward's books and brought them to the front. I gave them to Edward who leaned over and gave me a quick kiss on the lips. Mr. Williams smiled and shooed us out of the room.

We were opening the locks on our lockers to put our books in when we heard a noise behind us. When we turned around there were several teenagers gathered around us. The leader seemed to be Chelsea, the girl who had hit on Edward the first day of school. "Well, look who we have here. Edward, are you sure that you haven't changed your mind? I can show you several places around Black River Falls that are quite private and secluded, just perfect for some one on one action. Now that Barbie here is stuck in foster care, I know that you must be getting rather lonely, not that she could please you the way that I know that I could," she said. She moved closer to Edward and put her hands on his chest, running one hand up to caress his neck and the other hand, she ran down his abdomen and onto his groin. She cupped his manhood, and before he had a chance to move, I had dropped my books on the floor and with one arm, I had pushed her across the hallway and into the lockers on the other side. Two of her friends charged me. I knocked them backwards, and they skidded down the floor about ten feet. A large group was starting to gather and was calling out, "Fight, Fight!"

Before I could get to any more of the group that was surrounding us, I felt my arms being pinned from behind. I started to pull out of the hands, but then Edward picked up my feet and the two of them walked me through the crowd. Alice picked up our books and threw them in her locker. She followed us outside to "our area" in the front of the school. Jasper and Edward finally put me down. "You know what, Bella. It's kinda refreshing for me not to be the one who's getting into trouble every day at school," Jasper laughed. "I think that you've undeniably taken that title away from me this year."

"That bitch is lucky that she is still alive," I said. "I swear to God that if she approaches Edward one more time, I'll break her freaking neck. They'll never find her body. Alice, why didn't you see that happening?"

"A better question is how does she know that we are in foster care? Nobody here is supposed to know that. She didn't say that the guys are in foster care, just us, so it couldn't have come from the office. They know that we have all been removed from Carlisle and Esme. What worries me is that she may be associated with Andrew or some of his buddies," Alice said.

"I think that they're here," Edward said, turning to face the forest. "I can hear people in the forest. Their thoughts are garbled, but I'm picking up bits and pieces about us. I'm hearing thoughts that wonder how we can be around all of these kids. There are at least two of them out there, maybe three. I think that one of them is the pack leader. They are pissed that we had Andrew and Kevin arrested. You'd think that they'd be grateful. After all, you could have easily killed them both and gone on your way. You three showed fantastic control considering all of the pressure that you were under. It's not every day that we run into wolves who don't know who we are and the details of our lifestyle. We've just grown accustomed to Jacob and Sam and their packs. The treaty has made us complacent when it comes to the wolves. You three were in real danger, well, you would've been in real danger if you were one on one. Luckily, you had Andrew outnumbered," Edward said.

"Yeah, it was also lucky that his parents didn't know what he is. If they did, he may have been comfortable phasing in front of them and attacked us," I said.

Out of the forest, three young men started walking into the parking lot. When the other students saw them, murmurs started passing through the crowd. Snippets of "Isn't that Kyle, the football player that took us to the state championships for three years?" was heard again and again. The largest one of the three, was immediately swarmed by students. He spoke with several of them, but his eyes never left ours. Eventually, we heard him tell the mob of students, "If you will excuse me, I have some business that I need to take care of." They backed off from him, and he and his two henchmen started walking over towards us. Most of the crowd followed them.

The one that the crowd referred to as Kyle stepped forward, and Edward stepped forward to meet him. He glanced at the crowd that surrounded the two of them. They stared each other in the eyes for several seconds, then Edward said, "To what do we owe this surprise?"

"I understand that you had a run in with some of my friends last night," Kyle said. "I'm not so happy that you had them arrested."

"They put their hands on my...wife," Edward said.

"What did you expect? She should have known how he would have reacted to her presence as soon as she walked in the door. She should have left immediately if she didn't want a confrontation," he said.

"The girls weren't given that option. You know what his parents do for the county. They were required to stay there," Edward answered. "Besides, they weren't doing any harm. They had been there all afternoon. If anyone was going to be... affected by them being there, don't you think that there were plenty of opportunities before Andrew got home?"

"I talked to Andrew, and he said that he didn't think that they knew that he... existed," Kyle said, shaking his head. "They were eating supper like they weren't expecting him to come home."

"Mrs. Jenkins told them that he was coming home. They knew _all_ about him," Edward said.

"Then why weren't they ready for him to arrive?" Kyle asked, wonder evident on his face.

"They _were._ We're used to, let's say, _unusual_ dinner guests," Edward said.

"How so?"

"Well, the last place we lived, there were a couple of _packs_ of unusual people that we were, not necessarily friends with, but lets say, we were acquainted with. They understood our _unusual _dinner guests really well. People say that you can see the change mostly in our eyes," Edward said.

"Yes, I have noticed that difference. It is rather unusual, I must say. What causes it?" Kyle asked.

"We like to partake of wild game, usually deer, elk, sometimes, we get to hunt bear and other such wildlife," Edward said.

"Why?" he asked.

"Many reasons, but mainly because it is right. It is a healthy diet. It goes to protect our souls," the love of my life explained to the werewolf.

The bell rang to signal the end of morning break. It was time for us to go to third period, World History. "We have to go, now," Edward said to Kyle. "I hope that I have calmed some of your fears."

"We shall talk again. Midnight, here." Kyle said as he turned to walk with his friends back into the forest.

"Three am is better, less of a crowd, but follow us from here to a neutral meeting place," Edward said. "We'll all be there."

We turned and walked back into the school. We could hear several people wondering what Kyle and Edward were talking about. They were wondering how the star football player from several years ago would even know Edward, much less have anything to talk to him about. To them, the conversation made little to no sense. Yet again, we were the center of gossip.

The rest of the school day was uneventful. We had all of our teachers sign off on our excuse slip and went to turn it in to Mrs. Copeland. Then we went to the parking lot. We slipped into the forest when nobody was watching, and as soon as we were out of sight, we started running. We left the school in moments and went deep into the forest. As much as we wanted to break into our couples, we stayed together just in case we ran across the werewolf pack. We found a small group of deer grazing about 2 miles from the school, and they let Jasper and me take them. We would need to feed the most often because we were still the most fragile of our group. We continued our hunt, going deeper into the forest. As we neared Canada, I caught a whiff of a bobcat, and we tracked it. Edward went in for the kill, as it was his favorite. After he drained it, we found the others something. After we fed, Edward called Carlisle and filled him in on his conversation with the wolf pack leader. He agreed to meet us at the school parking lot at a quarter till three in the morning so that we could lead them to a small clearing that we found while we were hunting. We were going to try to negotiate at least a truce, if not another treaty with the wolves.

Well fed, we trudged back to our cars. Everyone except us was gone from the parking lot. We took our time saying good-bye to our loved ones, then we got into our cars and headed to our respective foster homes. When I pulled up in the driveway, I noticed that I had a little blood on my shirt. It wasn't much, but it was noticeable. I needed to get up to our room before I saw anyone to change my shirt. It was a relatively warm day, so none of us had a sweater or jacket to cover it up with. We went to the front door, and when we went inside, I went upstairs at vampire speed. I made it to our room without seeing any one. I quickly changed shirts, and then came back downstairs to join Alice and Rosalie. We went into the kitchen to find Mrs. Valentine. She was sitting at the table with the bane of my existence. Chelsea was sitting with her books open, Mrs. Valentine going over Algebra problems with her.

I almost swallowed my tongue. Alice and Rose just stood there as stunned as I was. Mrs. Valentine looked up from the book and said, "Bella, Alice, Rosalie, this is my daughter, Chelsea. She had already gone to bed when you arrived last night, and you left so early this morning that I didn't get a chance to introduce you. You are in the same grade. Do you know each other?"

"Um, yes, we have met," I said. "Mrs. Valentine, do you need any help with supper?"

"Why, no, Bella, thank you for asking. I'll take care of supper. You just worry about your homework. School work comes first in this house," Mrs. Valentine said.

"Yes Ma'am," I said, and we started to go upstairs to our bedroom.

"Where do you think you are going?" Mrs. Valentine asked.

"To do our homework," I said, turning back to look at her.

"No, homework is done at the table so that I can supervise you," she said. Alice, Rose, and I groaned. That meant that we couldn't do our homework at vampire speed. We would actually have to do it slowly. It would take more than fifteen minutes to finish it. "I also want to know where you girls went after school. You obviously didn't come straight here."

"Um, we went to get a snack," Alice said.

"Well, I hope that you didn't ruin your appetite. You'll still be expected to eat supper with the family. From now on, you're expected to come straight here from school. Are we understood?" she asked.

"Yes, ma'am," I said as my cell phone rang. I pulled it out of my pocket to answer it, and Mrs. Valentine held out her hand for it. "What?" I asked her.

"Give it to me," she said. "No phone calls until homework is done."

"I'll tell them," I said, answering the phone. "Hi, sweetheart, Mrs. Valentine doesn't allow phone calls until our homework is finished. I'll call you back when we're done." I told him. Then I added in vampire speed, "It'll take a little longer than usual, she is going to watch us do it, and guess what! Chelsea is her daughter. She's sitting right here at the freaking table looking straight at us." Then I said in regular volume, "I love you. Alice and Rose send Jasper and Emmett their love. Bye."

We sat down and started with our homework. I pulled out my Algebra II book and made quick work of the problems, not having to erase once. Geometry followed just as quickly. Then I "read" the next chapter of Chemistry, actually just glancing at the topic headings and blackened or italicized words. I finished with reading the assigned pages of World History. What generally took us a mere fifteen minutes took us a whole forty. Mrs. Valentine came over and checked to make sure that we had completed all of the work. She even went as far as to go through our books and ask us questions out of the material that we were supposed to have read. When she was done drilling us, I looked at my watch and sighed as I packed my bookbag.

"Mrs. Valentine, now that we have finished our homework, may we invite our brothers over for a little while?" I asked.

"Why, sure honey. I don't see why not, however, you may not go into your room with them. You will have to either stay in the den or stay outside with them."

I picked up my phone and dialed Edward's number. "Hi,sweetheart, Mrs. Valentine said that you guys can come over and visit for a while. I can't wait. See you soon. Love you, too. Bye." We took our book bags upstairs to our room, and then we went outside to wait for them to arrive. It didn't take them five minute before they were pulling up in front of the house. They all jumped out of the jeep and ran to us. We jumped into their arms, and they twirled us around. We went into the back yard, out of view of most of the windows of the house, and especially out of earshot from the house. The guys sat down on the grass, and we girls laid back against their chests.

"So, how do you think it's going to go tonight with the wolves?" I asked Edward.

"I hope that it goes good. Kyle seemed receptive, at least to what I had to say. I have some hope that he will at least listen to what we have to explain to him. I don't think that he is going to be the type to attack without reason. I mean, we have been here since August and there haven't been any deaths here or in surrounding towns. That has to speak to the fact that we don't feed on humans." he answered me.

"Yeah, with the Quileutes, they just noticed that our eyes were different and that helped them to give us a chance. I guess that it helped that they caught us feeding off of a deer, though," Rosalie added.

"I was going to ask about that. What happened to make them give you a treaty?" I asked.

"Well, they did catch us feeding off of a pack of deer. When they saw that, and combined with our golden rather than crimson eyes, they realized that we didn't hunt humans. They were still wary which is why we can't cross the border, but they agreed not to cross it either. They agreed to give us our territory as long as we didn't bite a human. They agreed to live in peace with us which goes against their very nature. It was quite the step that they took away from their comfort zone. Jacob's grandfather was a strong, courageous man," Edward said.

"Is their desire to kill us that strongly ingrained into what they are?" I asked.

"Yes, it is. It isn't a learned mindset. It comes naturally. We are their natural enemies, just like the cat and the dog, though much stronger, and not reversed. We don't hunt them down to destroy them. We find their scent disgusting, but I believe that is more of a warning, like the skunk's scent is a warning. For Kyle to have stood that close to Edward today without shaking or starting to phase showed great control on his part," Jasper said.

"Well, bottom line is, we find out tonight, or more accurately, in the morning, what is going to happen. Wear loose fitting clothes just in case there is going to be a fight. We want you to be able to move well. Bella, you will stay near me," Edward said.

"I'm stronger than all of you," I said. "I can help in a fight. Don't count me out."

"You don't have any training, and there isn't any time to show you any techniques. Besides, where could we go?" Jasper asked.

"I could still help," I said. "All you have to do is bite a werewolf, right?"

"Yeah, but you could get hurt in the process. I don't want you fighting," Edward said. "They sound experienced, and if they know what they're doing, they can easily take down a newborn."

"Bella, he's right. If they are experienced at all, you, being a newborn, wouldn't have a chance at all against them. Let the rest of us do the fighting. We know how to beat them. I'll train you later, if you want me to, but for this one, you need to sit it out. You're too inexperienced, and you'll make us get hurt trying to protect you," Jasper said.

"Who's going to be fighting, and who's got a newborn?" Chelsea asked, coming over the hill in her backyard.

"Nobody is fighting, Chelsea, and nobody has a newborn. Why don't you mind your own business for a change?" I said.

"It is my business. My parents are responsible for the three of you. You have to do what they tell you to do. Anyway, mom said for me to come and get you. It's time for supper. They have to go home now," Chelsea said.

"Now for the torture of tortures," Alice said to Jasper. He and the other guys just laughed. Rose knocked Emmett upside the head.

"Is it going to be that bad?" I asked Edward, and he just nodded. I put my head down on his shoulder. I didn't want to let him go. I didn't want to face eating my first human meal as a vampire without him. I looked at Jasper and Emmett, and they had looks of pity on their face. I wouldn't even have Jasper to calm me down. I felt anxiety starting to build up inside of me. Jasper took a look at me, and started to calm me down. I smiled at him, but I still wished that he could go inside with me.

"Come on, Bella. You'll get through it. It'll be okay," Alice said, pulling me up from Edward's lap. I quickly turned and flew back into his arms. I kissed him with as much force as I could muster. He kissed me back equally as hard. When we finally broke our kiss, we started walking towards the front yard. The guys piled into Emmett's jeep, and I gave Edward another kiss, this one much more passionate. I knew that I would see him again in several hours, but it couldn't come soon enough for me.

After the boys had disappeared down the road, we walked inside. Supper was on the table, and everyone was waiting on us. We took the empty seats to the stares of Mr. and Mrs. Valentine. After Mr. Valentine said grace, Mrs. Valentine said, "Didn't Chelsea tell you that supper was ready?"

"Yes, she did," Rose said.

"Well, why didn't you come inside, immediately?" she followed.

"We walked our guys out to their car," Alice said.

"I thought that you said that you were inviting your brothers over," Mrs. Valentine said.

"Mom, don't you remember? I told you at the beginning of school. These are the ones who are dating their brothers. Some of the rumors are that they are sleeping with their brothers. Remember?" Chelsea said.

"Chelsea, what have I told you about gossip?" Mr. Valentine said.

"Yes sir," Chelsea said, but she looked at her mom.

"Is what she said true?" Mrs. Valentine asked. "Are you dating your _brothers_?"

"No, not really," I said. "In reality, we're married to them." Alice and Rosalie laughed.

"That is not funny at all, young lady. We do not make jokes of that nature in my house," Mr. Valentine said in a gruff voice.

"I wasn't joking," I said. "Emmett and Rosalie married first, then Alice and Jasper. Edward and I just got married in August. Once we were legal to marry with our parent's approval, we got married. It's no big secret. We aren't blood related. We are just two families that were adopted by the same couple when both of our parents were killed in an automobile accident."

"Then why are you here with us," Mrs. Valentine asked?

"Our marriage licenses were lost during our move from Alaska," Alice said. "We had to send for new copies of them to satisfy the DHS people. They just haven't arrived, yet."

"I see. I don't think that your brothers will be allowed over again until this is all settled. Now, help your plates," Mrs. Valentine ordered. I had hoped that she had forgotten with all of the discussion about our love lives. No such luck!

We all took very small helpings of each of the items on the table. I watched as Alice and Rose put their napkins in their laps. Then they each "took a bite," by picking up a small amount of something that was on their plate and bringing it up to their lips. They made the motion of opening their mouths, but then, instead of putting the food into their mouths, they took their forks to their laps and placed the food onto their napkins in vampire speed followed by raising their empty fork to their lips again. This whole process took less than a quarter of a second, and nobody at the table, except for me, was none the wiser. After watching them for a couple of more times, I decided that it was time for me to try their technique. I put a couple of pieces of broccoli onto my fork and brought it to my mouth. When nobody was looking, I put the broccoli into my napkin. Sweet success. While we couldn't get away with "eating" the whole meal this way, we managed to take care of about eighty percent of it with the napkin ruse. The other twenty percent, we had to gag down. It was kind of like eating cardboard with mud soaked into it. It wouldn't kill you, just make you want to puke your guts out.

When supper was over, the three of us wrapped up the napkins in our laps and helped to clear the table. We dumped the napkins in the trash, and after the kitchen was cleaned, we asked if we could go for a walk. Mrs. Valentine gave us permission to go for a walk, telling us to be back by dark. We left the house at a pretty steady clip, moving down the road towards a patch of woods down the street. Chelsea started to follow us, but we quickly out paced her. When we reached the woods, we started to run, getting as far away from human habitation as we could before we started hacking up what we were forced to eat. It didn't taste any better coming back up. We ran through the woods after that, looking for something to clear our palates with. Luckily, we ran across a den of coyotes, five of them, just back from hunting from the smell of them. We made quick work of them, relieving ourselves of the horror that was supper. This time, my shirt made it through the kill and subsequent meal without damage. We ran back to the road and then walked back to the Valentine's house. We walked into the backyard and sat near the back fence where we were with the guys until dark. Then we went inside and up to our room. I turned on my Ipod and lay down on the top bunk, trying to relax until it was time to go to meet the rest of the family. To say that I wasn't nervous would be a lie. I was very nervous. I didn't know what was going to happen tonight. Alice couldn't see anything because it involved werewolves, and I usually counted on her to provide me with basic information. Any one of us could be hurt tonight, including myself or heaven forbid, Edward. So, I laid there, my Ipod volume turned up, the world tuned out.

I didn't hear when Mrs. Valentine opened the door to say, "Good night," and I didn't hear when Mr. and Mrs. Valentine shut their door for the night. However, when the time turned to 2:40 am, I knew it in my soul. I turned off my Ipod, and sat up on the side of the bed. Alice and Rose did the same. I jumped down lithely, and we moved to the window in our room. The house didn't have an alarm system, but the front door squeaked. Our window was the best option. We opened it quietly, and we jumped out of it, landing stealthily in the front yard. We ran through the abandoned streets to the school parking lot. Carlisle and Esme were already there, and we gave them huge hugs. The boys showed up a minute later, and we let them lead us through the forest to the small clearing that we had all discovered while we were hunting. Now, all we had to do was wait.

Nobody spoke. Everyone was paying full attention to our surroundings, listening, smelling. Edward was trying to hear their thoughts. About two minutes till three, he suddenly stopped and looked up in the direction that we had come. We all followed his gaze. There, in the forest, were about ten wolves, ranging in size from about five feet at the shoulder to three and a half feet at the shoulder. They ranged in color from burnt auburn to gray. They were still in the forest's edge. The leader backed into the trees, and a minute later, Kyle stepped out into the clearing wearing jogging pants.

Kyle moved halfway towards us, then he paused. Carlisle moved towards him, meeting him in the middle of the two groups of us. Carlisle said, "Kyle, I presume. I am Carlisle Cullen. This is my family. My wife, Esme. You have already met Edward, my son. His wife, Bella. Emmett and his wife, Rosalie. And Jasper and his wife, Alice." Carlisle pointed each of us out as he introduced us.

"How much do you know about us?" Kyle asked.

"Pretty much everything," Carlisle answered him. "You are shape shifters, not true werewolves. You are natural enemies of the vampire. You are descended from ancient vampire hunters, but you only come into being if there is a vampire threat to activate the wolf gene. As long as you phase, you will not grow older, but if you quit phasing, your aging will begin again. You have a remarkable metabolism which allows you to heal from injuries at an almost alarming rate, however a vampire bite is lethal to you. Your pack is bound to your decisions as alpha. You can speak via telepathy when you are in your wolf form. Did I miss anything?"

"How do you know so much?" Kyle asked, astonishment in his voice.

"You are obviously not the first pack that we've come across. In Washington State, there are two packs in La Push. We have an established treaty with them that has been in effect for going on ninety years now. We would like to establish such a working relationship with your pack."

"Why would a werewolf pack make a treaty with a coven of vampires?"

"Well, first of all, we aren't a coven. We are a family. Secondly, we aren't like any vampires that you have ever run across. We don't feed on humans. We feed exclusively on wildlife. It is a choice that we each, of our own volition, have made. They agreed to stay to their side of a treaty line that we both agreed on, and we would stay on our side of the line. We also agreed not to bite any human. The treaty is still in place today."

"How do we know that you are telling the truth about feeding on humans?"

"By the color of our eyes. Have you ever seen vampires with golden eyes before?" Kyle shook his head. "That is because when a vampire feeds on a human, the redness of the blood is reflected in the eyes. When a vampire feeds off of wildlife, the eyes turn golden," Carlisle said.

"Is there anyone who can confirm what you are telling me?" asked Kyle.

Carlisle turned to me. "Do you think that Jacob would talk to him?"

"I don't know. I left him pretty upset. You could try him, but Sam may be a better option since you have a better relationship with him," I said.

"Okay, I'll try Sam," Carlisle said, dialing his number from memory. Unfortunately, there wasn't an answer. "Bella, would you please try."

"Okay," I said. I pulled out my cell phone and dialed Jacob's number from memory. It rang several times before he picked it up.

"Hello," Jake said.

"Jake, it's Bella. I'm putting the phone on speaker." I said, changing the phone over to speaker. There was just silence for a long time. "Look, Jake, I'm sorry to call. I know that I told you that I'd stay out of your life, but I need to ask you a favor." The line remained silent. I could hear him breathing on the other end, but he didn't say anything, so I continued. "Jake, we're talking with some new wolves, well, the pack leader in particular. He wants someone to confirm that we don't hunt humans. We tried to call Sam, but he didn't answer his phone. Would you talk to him?" The line remained silent. "Jake, I'm sorry I called. I won't bother you again. I'm sorry. Bye."

"Wait, Bella! Don't go!" he yelled, then, "don't go," he whispered. "Baby, please don't go," he whispered almost inaudibly.

"Jake, I'm here. Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I just didn't expect to hear your voice again, that's all," he said, and you could hear the tears in his voice. "Now what did you need me to do? Talk to a pack leader. Can't you guys avoid trouble?" he laughed. "Seriously, dude, this is Jacob Black. I'm pack leader from La Push, Washington. We have a treaty with the Cullens that dates back to my grandfather. He and Carlisle made the treaty when they ran up on them feeding off of a deer. The Cullens aren't like most leeches; they don't feed off of humans. They only feed off of wildlife like deer and cougars, and that big one, Emmett, he likes bears."

"This is Kyle. I am pack leader here in Black River Falls, Wisconsin." We all groaned. We didn't want Jacob, and thus everyone in Forks to know where we were. "How do you know the Cullens so well?"

"Well, I don't know all of the Cullens that well, to be honest. I know Carlisle because he is a doc, and he has patched me up a couple of times, especially after Edward beat the shit out of me. I know Edward, unfortunately. I wish that he didn't exist if you want to know my honest thoughts on the matter, but that's between him and me. Then, Bella. I know her the best of all of them. She is my ex-wife. I still love her more than life itself." I looked at Edward and handed the phone to Carlisle.

I walked away from the group, and Edward walked with me. "I just hate that I had to hurt him so much," I said. Edward took me into his arms, and pulled me to him. "I wish that there was another way. One where he didn't have to get hurt so bad; one where he would find peace and contentment, not misery and loneliness."

"You made your choice. Do you regret it?" Edward asked me, pulling me away from him enough to look me in the eyes. "Do you ever wish that you had chosen to stay with him over coming with me?"

"No! Never! I love you with every atom of my being. I could no more be without you than quit existing. You are my everything, but Jacob is my friend. He was there for me when you weren't. I can never forget that. I can never thank him enough for that. You have to understand that he kept me alive for you to come back for. If it weren't for Jacob, I wouldn't be here for you to love. You owe Jacob, too, Edward. I know that you'll never see it that way, but you do. All of you who love me and want me to be a part of this family owe Jacob."

"I never looked at it that way. I looked at Jacob, and he had what I wanted. He had you. I didn't think that him having you kept you alive, just that he had you. He had you in his bed at night. He had you in his arms in the morning. I wanted you in my arms and in my bed and in my future." He kissed me and held me to him.

I walked back to the Cullens when I heard Carlisle finishing up the phone call with Jacob. I took the phone back from him. I took it off of speaker. "Jake, are you still there?"

"Yeah, Bella. I'm still here."

"I just wanted to tell you how sorry I am again. I didn't mean for this to hurt you. You are still one of my best friends, and I owe my life to you. I want to thank you for giving me back my life when I didn't think that I could go on."

"Bella, how did you think I was going to feel? You cheated on me with Edward, then you left me for him. You didn't even have the decency to tell me that he was back in your life. You cheated, and then you let me find you. Bella, if you had said that he was back in town, I think that I would have understood you leaving. I wouldn't have liked it, not by a long shot, but I would have understood it. I never thought that I took his place in your life."

I crumpled to the ground, "Jacob, I didn't know how to tell you. I didn't want to hurt you. You deserved better than what I could give you. But Jacob, I do want you to know one thing, I swear to you, I didn't cheat on you with Edward. I swear it. We didn't have an intimate relationship until after my death."

"Does it matter, Bella? Your soul belonged to him. You know it, and I know it."

"My soul belonged to him every day that we were married, Jake. That never changed, even when he left me."

"Yeah, I've got to go, Bella. I need to patrol. I'm going to be late relieving Seth."

"Give Seth my love, good-bye Jake."

"Good-bye." I hung up my phone and just sat there. I covered my face with my hands. I wasn't ready to face my family, much less another group of werewolves.

When the werewolves left, Edward came over to me and lifted me in his arms. He walked over to the rest of the family. Carlisle had rejoined everyone, and though they could hear every word that had been said, he repeated the high points for my benefit. "There is a treaty in effect with the wolves. We may hunt any of the forests between Black River Falls and Canada. There is no boundary line that we have to worry about not crossing. We obviously can't bite a human. They will keep our secret identities just as we will keep theirs. Otherwise, we can call him if we have any problems. He will contact Edward at school if they have any problems."

When Carlisle had finished going over the terms of the treaty, I looked at my watch. It was a quarter after four in the morning. We had forty-five minutes to be back before Mr. Valentine would be getting up for work. Edward and I ran back along the trail that we came into the forest on. When we were about a mile from the school, we veered off of the trail about a half mile. There, we made love, him holding onto me like I was about to vanish from his arms. We lay in the leaves covering the floor of the forest, naked, as the sun came up, wisps of sunlight glistening off of our skin. We dressed in silence as the clouds hid the happy sun, again making the morning dull and lifeless. We ran back to the school parking lot where we parted ways. I kissed him good-bye, saying that I'd see him in a couple of hours.

I ran back to the Valentine's house. Once there, I jumped into the open window, closing it behind me. Alice and Rose were already there, in bed, pretending to be asleep. I crawled into bed and replaced my Ipod headphones. I listened to my music with my eyes closed, waiting until it was time to begin another grueling day.


	15. Chapter 15

**Disclaimer: Stephenie Meyer owns it all.**

**Chapter 15 - Tickle Me Chelsea**

After Mr. Valentine left for work, we got our showers and got ready to go. It was too early to leave for school, but we wanted some private time with the boys before school started. It was as if Mrs. Valentine could read our minds. She stopped us as we started out of the door. "Where are you going so early?" she queried.

"School," I replied. "We like to get there early so that we're not rushed. We also need to stop by the post office and check our mail boxes. We haven't checked them in the past two days."

"I want you to take Chelsea with you. I don't know what you have planned, but I don't think that I trust you girls not to follow the rules."

"Um, no. I don't want Chelsea riding in my car. I don't get along with her. I'm trying to tolerate her for the sake of peace in this household since we don't have a choice of having to live together, but I will draw the line of having her in my car," I said.

"What? She hasn't said anything about the two of you not getting along. Why on earth would you not like each other?"

"That is between her and me. It doesn't surprise me that she hasn't told you, though. I don't think that I would tell my mother if I had done the things that she has done."

"What kind of things?"

"Ask your daughter. We are leaving now. We'll see you this afternoon, unless by some miracle we get things worked out today."

"Okay. Have a good day, girls."

"We'll try." We walked out of the front door as we heard Mrs. Valentine's voice call for Chelsea to come downstairs. I wondered what excuse Chelsea would make up for our dislike of each other. I'm sure that by the time that she was done lying, it would be all my fault. Oh well, I'd deal with that when we got back this afternoon. Right now, we we had accomplished my goal. We were leaving the Valentine's house early, without Chelsea.

We reached the school a full hour early. The boys were waiting on us, actually twiddling their thumbs. They were so cute standing there. When we got out of our car, they pounced on us. They offered to take us hunting since we wouldn't be able to go this afternoon, but we told them that we'd hunted last evening after supper. In that case, they all decided that we should go our separate ways. We hadn't had enough private time in the past week, and we were all very sexual creatures, not used to going twelve hours without having each other, much less days, like the others had gone. True, Edward and I had sneaked around more than they had, but we were still newlyweds. We were supposed to be sneaking around.

Edward and I ran deep into the forest. When we came to a nice, secluded space, we undressed each other. He gently laid me down on the forest floor that was cushioned by a nice bed of leaves. He leaned down and started kissing me, starting at my feet and working his way up, paying attention to my calves, then my thighs. When I started to part my legs for him to pay attention to my soaking lips, he shook his head and instead kissed my stomach, placing a kiss into my belly button which made me jump and bring my hands to his cheeks. It tickled and made my whole stomach contract. He laughed and took my hands into his. Then he kissed his way up to my breasts, taking one, then the other into his mouth. His tongue played with my nipples, twirling them around in his mouth, catching them with his teeth, tweaking them, sucking them. I could feel them becoming hard in him mouth, pebbling with the work that his tongue was doing. He released my hands so that he could use his hands to mold and massage the other breast that his mouth wasn't teasing.

Once my hands were free, I reached to his chest, ghosting my fingers over his pecs, making them twitch under my fingertips. Then I found his nipples and started to rub them and twirl them. They, too, became hard as I ministered to them. As I left his nipples, he started kissing my upper chest, going to the hollow between my collar bones, kissing and sucking. As he did that, my hands started going lower, down his wonderful six-pack abs, finding every crevice, every line of definition that demarcated the toned perfection of his stomach. He kissed me on each collar bone then moved to my neck, kissing and sucking. I knew that he was marking me as his. When his lips finally found mine, my hands found his hardness, and I rolled my fingers around his tip, smearing his early juices around. He groaned into my mouth as I gripped him and started to stroke him, moving his body between my legs. He then reached down and started to rub my nerve center. I groaned right back into his mouth, lifting my hips into his, begging for him to enter me. He pulled back from my hands, and with one small thrust forward, we were one again. He pressed forward, placing himself into me, filling me with himself. I pressed myself onto him, angling myself to take him deeper. We didn't do anything more, just pressed ourselves together that one time, and we came together, both of us, exploding with fireworks, him filling me, and me clenching around him, taking all that he had to offer me, squeezing him until he was dry.

We'd made love before, but this time was the most passionate, the most perfect time of all of them. This time was about loving each other, not about the pleasure or the release. Not even about the sensuality of being together, it was about nothing but the emotion of love, the feeling of being one in this vast universe.

We laid there, in the leaves for the rest of our time together, joined together, neither of us moving, neither of us talking, just holding each other. When the time came to get ready to go, he withdrew from me. I leaned over to kiss him, and he kissed me back. He got up first, and he offered me a hand to pull me up. He then cleaned the leaves from my back and hair. He gathered my clothes and helped me to get dressed. Then I removed the leaves from his body and helped him get dressed. We ran back to the school, meeting up with the others in the parking lot.

The others were rowdy and a little bit hyper while we were still mellow. I reached up to Rosalie's hair and removed a few leaves that Emmett either missed or didn't think to pull out. She thanked me, and we walked into the school together after claiming our bookbags from the cars. In my opinion, we were off to a remarkable start to the day. Classes went smoothly. The only snag was that we were having three exams the next day, in English II on Oedipus, in Algebra II, and in Geometry. Of course Alice and I knew all of the material, but I could only imagine the "studying" that Mrs. Valentine would make us do today. Oh well, with the great start this morning had brought my way, I wasn't going to let even that get me down.

When school was over, we kissed the boys good-bye and told them to call us if the licenses came in. Then we headed back to our second prison away from home. We got there just after Chelsea did. We hadn't heard anything from her all day, so that had added to my good day. I should have known that it couldn't last forever. "What did you tell my mother this morning?" she asked stalking up to us while we were still in the front yard.

"Just that I didn't want you in my car because we didn't get along," I said, passing her by, paying her barely any attention at all. "I told her that if she wanted to know why that she'd have to ask you."

"She said that we'd all have to talk this afternoon when we got home."

"Interesting, I wonder what about," I said as I opened the door and the three of us went inside. "We're back, Mrs. Valentine. Is there anything that we need to do before we get started on our homework?"

"Yes, dear. I wanted to talk to the three of you and Chelsea. I have always found that the way to discuss hard feelings is to have all parties involved sit down and get everything out in the open. I find that 'he said/she said' or in this case 'she said/she said' just doesn't work. If all parties are together, then the disagreement can be settled more quickly."

"Would you mind if I put on some of our laundry first so that it will have time to wash and dry before we go to bed?" I asked.

"No, dear. You go right ahead. Do you see that, Chelsea. They do their own laundry. I told you that most teenagers do take care of their own clothes. It is time for you to start taking up some more chores around the house. Bella, do you mind if I ask you another question?"

"Not at all, Mrs. Valentine."

"What other chores do you do at your home?"

"Well, I help clean the house, bathrooms, my room, living room, help cook supper and clean the kitchen every night, floors, we have hard wood floors, so I help do those every weekend. I do the beds every two to three days, and help with the laundry. When we do spring and fall cleaning, I help with that as well."

"Oh, Chelsea, your life is so about to change. Bella, what classes do you take?"

"I'm in the advanced schedule. All of my classes are advanced. English II, Chemistry, World History, Algebra II, and Geometry. I don't count gym as a class. To me it is a waste of time. I get plenty of exercise when we run in the evenings."

"And, if I might ask, what are your grades and your cumulative GPA?"

"I have perfect marks. At least a one hundred average in all of the classes. Some of the classes give bonus work, so I have over a one hundred average in those classes. Alice and Edward do as well. They are taking the same classes as I am, and they also have perfect scores. Our GPA's are all over 4.0. Our last school, in Alaska, awarded 5 points for a A in advanced classes. Not all of our classes were, though, so our GPA's are somewhere around 4.5 or so. Our parents are very strict about our school work. Three of us are Juniors, Emmett, Rosalie, and Jasper. They usually study together. This separation has been very hard on Rose because she doesn't have her study partners. Then Edward, Alice, and I are Sophomores. Edward is getting the raw end of the deal with us because the three of us usually study together."

"I see. When we are finished with our talk, if you would like to invite the boys over to study, and I do mean study, you may.

"Thank you, Mrs. Valentine. That is kind of you. I'm going to go get the clothes now," I said going upstairs. I gathered our things that were washable and headed back downstairs. I put in a load of colors and started it. Then we all sat down around the table to have our "talk."

"Okay. From your comments this morning, Bella, I am to understand that you girls, especially you, don't get along with Chelsea. Am I correct so far?" Mrs. Valentine asked, looking at me.

"Yes ma'am. But, I also believe that I said that it was between Chelsea and me, and that if you wanted to know the details, you would have to ask her," I said.

"Alright, Chelsea, why are you having problems with Bella, Alice, and Rosalie?"

"It's really not that big of a deal, Mom. When they first got here, I kind of made a pass at Edward. I didn't know that he and Bella were an item. After all, they were supposed to be brother and sister," Chelsea said.

"Is that all? I can see why that would be upsetting, but I can also see how that mistake could have happened. I don't think that it should be enough to hold a grudge over," Mrs. Valentine said looking at me.

"No, unfortunately, that is not all. Is it Chelsea?" I looked at me with hate in her eyes.

"Chelsea? Is there more?"

"Well, Maybe I've approached Edward since then on a couple of occasions," she said, grinding her teeth.

"After you knew that he was spoken for? Chelsea, we've raised you better than that. You've been raised to be a young lady," Mrs. Valentine said. We couldn't hold in the snorts that came to the surface. "Do you girls have something to add?"

"No," I said quickly.

"Why not, Bells? This tramp cupped your man's dick, and you're not going to rat her out? Why the hell not?" Rosalie said with her usual lack of tact.

"Well, Rosie, I was trying not to think about it so that it wouldn't make me mad again. You know what generally happens when I lose control. Somebody could get hurt, and the boys aren't here to pull me off of her," I said as I clenched my teeth. "If you'd excuse me, I need to go for a short walk," I said as I got up from the table and practically ran for the front door. Mrs. Valentine was calling for me to stop, but I ignored her as I ran down the street towards the small patch of woods that we'd found the night before. As I got there, I ran at full speed into them. When I was out of earshot, I started punching trees, knocking them over. I let out a scream, and when I had a small clearing, I started picking up the felled trees and throwing them.

"I wonder if this is how clearings get made in the forest," a familiar voice said from behind me. I turned and ran into Edward's arms. He held me tight. "Alice called me. She said that Rosalie set you off and that you handled it quite well. She told me where you'd be. Are you okay?"

"I'm getting there. I'm better now that you're here. I was so mad, I could've broken Chelsea into a thousand piece. Then we could have scattered her over the face of the earth. I don't know if I'm ever going to get control of my emotions. I'm scared that I'm never going to get them under control."

"Bella, love, you did great today. You were angry, and you didn't go after her. You ran away. That is a vast improvement from just three days ago. You're getting there. You're doing so well. You just don't see the improvement because it's you whose feeling the anger. Trust me, love, you're improving. Now, are you ready to go back?"

"Yes, I'm ready." We ran back to the edge of the woods, and then we ran at an accepted human speed back to the Valentine's house. The other guys were already there. They smiled at me, and I smiled back at them.

When we walked inside, Rose ran up to me and said, "Bella, I'm so sorry for upsetting you. I know that it is all my fault that you lost your temper, but you did so good in handling it. We're all so proud of you. Please forgive me and my mouth."

"Of course, Rose. I forgive you. You were just trying to take care of me. Is Mrs. Valentine mad at me for running out like that?"  
"At first she was, but we explained that you were very upset about what Chelsea did, and that you didn't want to start a fight about it, so you left. We told her that when you used to get upset, you fought, that it was a reaction to our parents' deaths. But, you had been in counseling and that you were instructed to leave if you were thinking about fighting, so you left. Then we told her that when you were upset like this that Edward was the only one who could calm you down. Believe it or not, she told us to call him. Then, when he got here, she asked him straight out if Chelsea had touched him in his privates, and when he told her yes, she flipped out. She made Chelsea sit at the table to do her homework and told us that we could do it anywhere we wanted to except our bedroom. Then she told Chelsea that she was grounded for a month and that she had to give up her car and her television and her music and her cell phone for the rest of the year. She can't go anywhere for the rest of the year or have her friends over here. And that's just what she thought of. She said for her to just wait until her father came home. She would get the rest of her punishment then."

"OMG! Well, it seems that things are working out for the better after all. Come on guys. Let's go into the backyard and get this homework done. We sat around the patio set and finished our homework. Then we pretended to study for our tests. Instead we talked while we held hands. Mrs. Valentine came out a couple of times, once to ask us if we wanted anything to drink, and once to invite the boys to supper. They graciously declined, saying that they were expected back at their foster home for supper. They were so lucky. They were going to tell their foster mother that they'd eaten over here, so they wouldn't be forced to eat any human food tonight.

When Mr. Valentine arrived home, they boys took it as their cue to leave. They got up, and we walked them around to the front of the house to the jeep. Jasper told us that we shouldn't worry. The marriage licenses should be in the mail tomorrow. He had talked to Jenks today, and they had been overnighted today. He was also successful in getting them placed into the Alaska bureau of Vital Statistics, so that if anyone questioned the authenticity of them, everything should check out. We were very glad to hear this good news.

We walked back inside to hear Mrs. Valentine explaining to Mr. Valentine how their precious daughter had sexually fondled my husband. She told him of the things that she had already taken away from Chelsea as punishment, and as stunned as he was, Mr. Valentine decided right then and there that Chelsea was going to transfer to an all girls school as soon as he could find one. She would go there without any privileges, no extra money, and no weekends away from campus. I just smiled at her over her father's shoulder. I went into the laundry room, and put the clean clothes that could be dried into the dryer. Then I asked Mrs. Valentine if I could help her get supper on the table. She told me to have a seat, that Chelsea would be taking care of that tonight. We sat down at the table and enjoyed the show as Chelsea set the table and brought the food in. Again, we managed to have to eat only a few bites of the meal, safely stashing most of it in our napkins. Again, we managed to empty our napkins when we took our plates to the kitchen. However, tonight, instead of helping clean the kitchen, Mrs. Valentine suggested that we go for our walk while Chelsea cleaned the kitchen. We gladly obliged.

After our walk, and our regurgitation, and our snack, I showed them my new clearing. They laughed when I told them that Edward asked me if I thought that angry vampires were how all clearings in the woods were formed. They said they agreed. It must be angry vampires. How else? We kidded around some, even played chase some. Then, as it started to get dark, we headed back towards the house. When we stepped inside, Mrs. Valentine asked us if we wanted to join her and Mr. Valentine for some television. We graciously declined, saying that we didn't watch television. We generally found it boring and predictable, and we usually did other things instead. They asked us what we usually did at home, and we told them that usually we played chess, or listened to music, or listened to Edward play the piano, or read books, or helped Esme with some of her home designs, or Alice designed her clothing line, or Rose worked on the cars, or other such things.

Mr. Valentine's ears perked up when we mentioned Rosalie working on the cars. "You like cars?" he asked.

"They're my passion," she said. "I work on them every chance I get."

"What kind of cars?" he asked.

"Any kind. Foreign or domestic. Old or new. It doesn't matter to me. I work on them all."

"Could you take a look at our car? It has a clunk in it when I accelerate."

"Sure. I didn't bring my coveralls. Do you have anything that I can cover up my clothes with?"

He went to his room and got a pair of camouflage coveralls. "Will this do?"

"Sure will." Rose took them from him and slipped them on over her clothes. She followed him to the garage and took the keys that he offered her. We followed them outside. She got into the car and carefully backed it out of the driveway. Then she drove it around the block. When she pulled it back into the garage, she got out and asked Mr. Valentine if he had a wrench set. He went and got what he had and brought it over to her. She then asked if he had a light. He didn't, so she asked for a flashlight. He brought her one, and she told him where to hold it so that she could see what she needed to see. Then she slid underneath the car. She tightened a few bolts here and there, and then she crawled out from under the car. She checked the oil and the different fluid levels. Then she inspected the belts. After about thirty minutes, she told him that she had fixed the problem with the rattle, but he was going to have other problems soon. He was overdue for an oil change. His transmission fluid was running low, and one of his belts was getting frayed. He thanked her for her help, and she pulled off the coveralls, handing them back to him. We then went back inside. When he came back in, we could hear him talking to Mrs. Valentine. He told her that he wasn't sure if Rose had done anything or not, but she didn't seem to hurt anything. He would know for sure in the morning when he drove it if it was fixed. He had taken it to two mechanics who hadn't been able to fix it in two days each. Rose had only spent thirty minutes with it. He would be surprised if it was fixed, but she did seem to try. That was all that he could ask for.

Rose laughed at his naivety, and said that she couldn't wait until he got into it in the morning. She went and got a shower before climbing into bed to get all of the grease off of her hands and face. Our Rose was back, just the way that we liked her.

The next morning seemed like it took forever to arrive. It was overcast, as usual, but there was a hint of snow in the air. We got ready early, as usual, and and took our time to pack everything and load it into the car. We still arrived at the school before the boys did. When they arrived this morning, they said that they, too, packed and loaded everything. We hoped that there would be no reason to go back to our foster homes after this morning. We were hoping for a speedy delivery of our packages today. Jasper had gotten in touch with Carlisle yesterday, and he would be looking for the package to arrive. He would be in contact with the DHS office just as soon as he got his hands on it.

We didn't have time to take our trip into the forest this morning, so we stayed around the edge of the parking lot. We kissed and cuddled until the first bell rang, then we came onto school property and went to our first period class. We had our test today on Oedipus, so when we went into the classroom, we didn't take out any books. Mrs. Anderson passed out the test, and we began it immediately. The three of us were the first three finished. We handed in the tests and sat back down in our seats. The board said that our next assignment would be Hamlet. We were all familiar with the play, so none of us were very worried about the upcoming projects. Our homework was to outline Act I, Scenes 1 and 2. We had our own copies of Hamlet at our house, so we would wait until we got home to start the homework.

The next class was Chemistry which was a breeze. Mr. Williams asked us to go to the board and work some of the problems off of the homework, so we did. I got a few whistles when I passed by a couple of the jocks' desks, and Edward accidentally bumped into their desks when he followed me past them. One of the larger of the boys fell onto the floor, and the class laughed at him as he picked himself up. He just glared at Edward as Edward finished the problem that he had been assigned to work. It seemed that Edward, Alice, and I were the only ones in the class that had finished the homework correctly. He was trying to get us to explain our reasoning to the class. Unfortunately, the reasoning that we used was too advanced for the class to understand. We used more complex methods that involved some higher math, and what Mr. Williams had intended to be a help session for the class just set the three of us further apart from them. It's not that we minded, but it was just one more example of how we were different.

When we went to morning break, the large football player that Edward had knocked out of his chair decided to confront Edward. We were leaning against the building, well, the guys were, and we girls were leaning against the guys, when he came over to us. "Hey, you," he said, pointing to Edward.

"Yeah, what do you want?" Edward asked him, still holding onto me.

"You, you piece of shit," he said.

"I'm sorry. I don't swing that way. I like girls, specifically, this one. There are a couple of guys over by the gym that I've heard that are gay. You might want to try them," Edward said.

"I'm going to kill you," he said, clenching his fists.

"You and what army?" Edward said, standing up straighter, and pushing me off of him, setting me to the side.

"Just me. I won't need an army to break your fucking neck," he said, moving closer to Edward.

"Not on school grounds. When I beat the shit out of you, I don't want to answer to the principal or the cops," Edward said. "I'll meet you in the forest just beyond the cars after the last bell rings for the day."

"Sure you will. I'll believe it when I see it, pretty boy," he said.

"Don't worry your pea sized brain over it. I'll be there. I want to teach you a lesson for whistling at my wife. You've been warned. Now you'll pay," Edward said.

"Edward, hopefully we'll be doing something after school today," I said. "Remember?"

"Love, this will only take thirty seconds," he said to me, placing a kiss on my cheek.

The bell rang for third period. I wasn't happy with the turn of events that had taken place. I didn't like it when any of the guys decided to fight, especially Edward, but there wasn't anything that I could do about it. News of the fight quickly made it through the entire school. We could hear everybody whispering about it. Someone was taking bets on the action. If I didn't know any better, I'd think it was Emmett. We made it through World History without any problems. Then we went to Algebra II. We took the test which was like addition to us. We completed it in no time, again the first three to turn it in.

At lunch, I tried again to talk Edward out of fighting the bully, but it was to no avail. Alice saw the fight and promised me that Edward wouldn't hurt him too badly. Emmett and Jasper were all for the fight, and Rose didn't care either way. I was so outnumbered it wasn't even funny. Near the end of lunch, after we had taken our props back to the return tray area, the bully came up to our table. "The little lady hasn't talked you out of our meeting, has she?" he asked.

"No, I'll be there," Edward said.

"Good. I'll be waiting."

The bell rang, signaling the end of lunch. We got up to go to Geometry, our third exam for the day. We took our seats. When Mrs. Jones walked in, she looked the three of us in the eye and said, "Edward Cullen, please take this seat right here." She motioned to a seat on the first row in the front of the classroom. "Bella Hale, please take this seat right here." She motioned to a seat across the room from Edward, about half-way back in the row. She had effectively placed Edward, Alice, and me as far apart as she could get us. "These will be your seats whenever we are taking examinations. Are there any questions?"

"Yes, I have a question," I said, raising my hand.

"Yes, Bella," she asked.

"When we continue to finish first and still have perfect papers, may we go back to our old seating arrangements?"

"We'll have to see about that," she answered. Then she passed out the exam. We all finished first, and we all turned in our papers first. We went back to our assigned desks to wait for the rest of the class to finish the exam.

While I was sitting in my desk, doing nothing, I felt my cell phone vibrate. Everybody knew not to call us while we were in school, so it must be important. I looked at Edward and Alice to see if they were getting calls as well. Neither of them were, so I pulled out my phone. It had gone to voice mail. I couldn't answer a call in class, but I could look at the number who had called. It was Jake. What in the world would he be calling me about in the middle of the day? Then my phone vibrated again. I had a text message coming in. I pressed the button to take the message, and when I read it, my heart nearly fell out of my chest. Jake had called to tell me that Billy had just died. I sucked in my breath, and just shook my head. Not Billy. He was one of the nicest men that I had ever known. I texted him back, asking him what happened. He said that he and Charlie had gone fishing and that Billy had a heart attack. Charlie had rushed him to the hospital, but it was too late. I texted him and asked him if anyone was with him, and he told me that Seth and the rest of the pack was there, and Charlie and Sue. Just as I was about to text him back, a hand grabbed at my cell phone. I clenched it in my hand, not letting it go as I looked up to see Mrs. Jones looking down at me, her lips drawn in a flat line.

"Give it to me," she demanded.

"No," I said, quietly. By this time, Edward and Alice were watching me closely.

"You know the rules. There are to be no cell phones during school hours. That includes texting. Now, I said give it to me," she demanded again, this time pulling on the phone harder.

"And I said no," I repeated, still trying to keep my voice down. "There has been an emergency."

"I don't care. School policy doesn't make allowances for your so called emergencies. Now give it to me," she said, raising her voice.

"No," I said, this time, my voice also raised. I used just a little of my strength and pulled it out of her grasp. I held her hand off of it while I texted Jake back with my other hand. I told him that I would be on my way as soon as I could be. I would see him when I got there. We needed to figure out a way to keep me away from Charlie. I sent the message, then I looked up at Mrs. Jones. I put the cell phone back in my pocket.

"Go to the office, right now," she said.

I packed my bookbag and walked out of the room. I stood in the hallway for a few seconds and explained to Edward and Alice what was going on. I told Edward that I needed to go back to La Push for Jake and to see Billy laid to rest. He said that we'd talk about it after school. I told him that I'd see them in gym.

I walked to the office. When I got there, Mrs. Copeland looked up from her magazine and asked me why I was there. "I was told to come here by Mrs. Jones. I think that she wanted me to see Mr. Barnard."

"He's with someone. Take a seat. He'll be with you in a moment," she said. I took a seat as far away from the windows as I could get. The sun had been playing peek-a-boo with the clouds all day. So far, none of us had even had a close call, but this was the type of day that we usually missed school for. We were being extra careful today. I waited for about ten minutes when he let the boy out of his office. Then he looked at me.

"Ms. Hale, what may I do for you today?" he asked me.

"Mrs. Jones sent me to see you." I answered him.

"Well, let's step into my office." I followed him into his office. He motioned to a chair across from his desk, and I sat down. He closed the door and took his seat. "Why are you here?"

"I used my cell phone to send and receive text messages during her class," I said.

"Not one for beating around the bush, are we?" he asked.

"Why lie?" I asked. "Only fools lie. They always get found out. I found out a long time ago that if you do the crime, own up to it, and accept the consequences. It is only worse if you lie and then get found out. My dad was a cop. We didn't lie."

"You knew the school policy about using cell phones, even texting on campus?" he asked me.

"Yes sir."

"Then may I ask, why did you do it?"

"Because everyone who knows me knows the rule as well. If someone was trying to get in touch with me while I was at school, it must be very important."

"Was it?"

"Yes sir, it was."

"What was so important?"

"My best friend from where we used to live, his father just died. He had a heart attack. I need to go back home as soon as I can leave. His father was like a father to me. I loved him just like a dad."

"And I assume that you still have this conversation on you phone."

"Yes sir."

"May I see it?"

"Yes sir." I pulled out my cell phone and backed up the text messages to the first one sent by Jake. I scrolled down to the last one sent by me.

"Who is Charlie, and why do you have to hide from him?" he asked me.

"Charlie is an old boyfriend who assaulted me. I don't need to run into him while I'm there," I lied.

"Well, Bella, I think that we can let this slide this time. You are an excellent student as are your siblings. I think that you did have a true emergency. However, I don't want you making a habit of breaking school rules. Do I make myself clear?"

"Yes sir," I said.

"Then why don't you get to your next class. I'm so sorry about your loss."

"Thank you, Mr. Barnard," I said as I got up and left his office. I went to my locker and put my bookbag inside it. Then I went to the locker room to change clothes. I was earlier than everyone else, so I waited for the bell to ring. Shortly after it rang, the other girls started filing into the locker room. Chelsea was one of the first ones to arrive. She just glared at me as she went to her locker to change. After several of her friends had arrived, but before Alice or Rose had gotten there, she decided to come up to me and harass me.

"So, Bella, you're not so tough when your sister's aren't around, are you?" she asked.

"No, I don't need my sisters to take care of you, little girl," I said, trying to keep calm.

When another girl tried to come into the locker room, one of Chelsea's henchmen pushed her back out of the door. Chelsea came up to me and pushed me in the chest. I didn't budge. Then she slapped me across the face. Her girlfriends ooohhhed, and she grinned as if she had done some big thing. "Are you finished?" I asked her, still not losing eye contact with her.

"Not hardly," she said. She clenched her fist and rared back as if to punch me when I raised my hand and caught hers in mid-punch. The crashing sound that it made echoed through the dressing room. I squeezed her fist, just a little bit. She cried out in pain. Then, still holding onto her fist, I pushed her back up against the wall. I let go of her fist and grabbed her by the neck. I lifted her ever so slightly from the floor, making sure not to cut off the blood supply to her brain through her carotid arteries. I leaned in towards her neck, listening to make sure that I could still hear them pumping. I could. Then I stepped on her toes of both feet, effectively holding her down. Using my other hand, I tickled her under her arms until she was crying to be let go. Tears were running down her cheeks. Then, I achieved my goal. She pissed her pants. Her girlfriends were laughing so hard at her, that they were easy targets. I trapped them, two at a time, and in no time, they followed suit. When all five of them were as wet as newborn babies, I herded them out of the locker room and into the crowd of girls who were waiting to get into the locker room to change, and the crowd of boys who had already changed and were waiting for the girls to get changed so that we could all go out to the track to do our run. Everyone immediately noticed Chelsea and her entourage with their wet pants. The guys were merciless, calling them names, asking around if anyone had any depends for them, making bad jokes about them. The tears of laughter turned into tears of shame. My family just gave me high fives and Emmett promised not to cross me. Jasper said that I rivaled Emmett for the best prankster in the family. A better compliment was never harder to come by.

After gym, we went into the parking lot. It seemed that nobody was going home. Everybody was congregating around our cars. We stowed our bookbags in the cars, and Edward walked into the woods about a hundred yards. The five of us walked with him. Our bully was nowhere to be seen. We decided to make use of the time while we waited to see if he showed up. We split into pairs, and Edward and I started kissing, and not the chaste kissing either. We were getting each other pretty worked up when Mr. Bully stomped through the leaves.

"I'm here," he said.

"You're late," Edward said, breaking off from kissing me. He gave me one last kiss, then turned to face the bully. "What is your name, anyway?"  
"Why do you want to know?"

"I like to know the name of the people that I beat the shit out of. The last guy was named Jake, isn't that right, love?"

"Yes, Edward. Jake was the last one," I said. "But I really wish that you didn't beat him up so bad. Carlisle had a hell of a time setting all of his broken bones. Promise me that you won't hurt this one that bad."

"Don't worry, love. The only reason that Jake got hurt that bad was because he was man enough to fight me back. This one won't even get in a lick. There won't be a reason to hurt him so badly."

"What do you mean. I'm more than man enough to whip your little fagot ass," the bully said.

"Then you won't mind telling me your name," Edward said.

"My name is Jay. Now let's get this over with," he said.

"Edward, what are you doing?" a familiar voice said.

"Esme! Carlisle! Just taking care of a little problem. Don't worry, he won't need you when I'm done with him," Edward said. Just then, Jay threw a punch at Edward. Edward blocked it, swinging his arm around and knocking Jay's arm back towards him. Edward followed with a very soft punch in the gut. Jay fell over, gasping for air, and tumbled to the ground. Edward walked over to Esme and gave her a hug. Then he walked over to Carlisle and shook his hand. He turned back around to see Jay trying to get up off of the ground. He walked over to him and offered him a hand. Jay spit at him, and Edward very gently kicked him in the chin. This sent him tumbling over onto his back, blood coming out of his mouth, and him spitting out a tooth. The crowd surrounding us was astonished. They couldn't believe that big Jay, the defensive player of the year last year for the district, could be beat by the one hundred forty pound nobody who just moved into town.

"Are you finished, Edward?" Carlisle asked. "Let me guess. Defending Bella's honor again?"

"Yes sir. This ass had the nerve to whistle at her in class. Then when I very nicely helped him out of his desk, he had the audacity to challenge me to a fight. They never learn," Edward said.

"Okay, kids, are you ready to come home?" Esme asked.

"Hell yes, Mom," Emmett said.

"Then let's go home," Carlisle said. "Everything has been taken care of. You are all officially married in the state of Wisconsin. You can change your names at school tomorrow, girls."

We all walked back to our cars, and this time, we got into them with our mates. Edward adjusted his seat back the way that he liked it, and we went home, home for the first time in the past four days. We were all home.


	16. Chapter 16

**Disclaimer: Stephenie Meyer owns it all.**

**Chapter 16 – Fathers and Husbands**

We all went back to our house. When we got there, Carlisle showed us our marriage licenses. There it was, the one document that proved that Edward and I were legally married, the one document that they had never needed to have made in the past. We had learned our lesson. From this day forward, when we had documents created, we would include our marriage licenses, just in case. That way, we could use our single names or our married names.

When we had given hugs all around, I told them about Billy's death. Carlisle was shocked. He thought that Billy was in good health. He had no known health problems except for his paralysis, a result of the automobile accident that had taken the life of his wife, and a little constipation which was a very common problem in people who lived a sedentary lifestyle for whatever reason. His blood pressure had always been good and his cholesterol was normal. He didn't drink excessively, just a beer here and there during a ballgame, or smoke. All in all, for his age, Billy was relatively healthy, so for him to die of a sudden death heart attack, stung. I told them that I felt that I needed to go back to La Push for Jake and for Billy. After all, he was my father-in-law. Edward offered to go back with me, but I told him that I didn't think that it was such a good idea. Jake didn't need such a prominent reminder of what I'd done to him. I would go by myself. This was something that I needed to do alone.

I asked Alice to help me disguise myself for the funeral. She showed me how to put on some make-up to age myself. Then she gave me a wig and some clothes that would also help me to appear to be older. Together, we packed a week's worth of clothes and my toiletries. When we got downstairs, Edward was outside with his bag packed and loaded into the car. He said that he would stay at a hotel outside of town, in Port Angeles. I could have the car, and I could pick him up on the way back. He just didn't want me making the long trip as upset as I was. I gave him a big hug and thanked him. We got into the car, and we started on our way.

I lost myself in my thoughts. Billy accepted me into his family. He, along with Charlie, took care of me. He took me in when I was broken, never warning Jacob off. He never told Jacob that I was too broken. He never told Jacob that I was a lost cause. Instead, he told Jacob to love me and hold me close, that I would heal in time. He told Jacob that I was special even though I was broken, and that I was worth the effort that it would take to make me whole again.

We drove all night and by morning's light we were half way there. What would take the average driver twenty-nine hours would take us about nineteen. We had been on the road for right at twelve hours. We should be pulling into Port Angeles about noon, and I would be in La Push about one. The trip was uneventful. Edward managed to avoid all of the speed traps, and we were able to talk about everything and anything along the way.

Right on schedule, we pulled into Port Orleans. Edward booked a hotel room, and I went inside to do my make-up. I followed Alice's instructions to the letter, and when I put on the wig, I looked like I was in my middle forties. I didn't look like Bella Swan. I kissed him good-bye and headed out towards La Push. I drove the familiar road faster than I've ever driven it before, my vampire reflexes making a slower speed not only unnecessary but extraordinarily boring. So I drove like Edward did on that first trip when he drove me home from our first "date," the time when he'd rescued me from the attackers in the back streets of Port Orleans.

At one o'clock on the nose, I pulled into Jake's house. There were cars parked up and down the street. I parked on the road, in front of the neighbor's house. I got out of the car, looking around to see if I could see Charlie's car. I didn't, but I couldn't be certain that he wasn't here. They could be in Sue's car, and I had no clue what she drove. I walked up to the door and knocked. Seth answered it and looked at me funny. He wrinkled his nose and stared at me. "Bella?" he asked. I nodded. He took me by the hand and pulled me into the house.

"Is Charlie here?" I asked.

"No. He and Sue went home about an hour ago. How are you, Bella? Are you happy?" he asked me.

"I am happy with my life, but I need to see Jake. How is he doing?" I asked.

"He and Charlie have been at the funeral home all morning making arrangements. The visitation will be tonight from six to eight, and the funeral is tomorrow morning at eleven at the funeral home. Jake is lying down right now. I don't think that he is asleep, though. He hasn't slept since Billy died. He's a nervous wreck," Seth said.

I started walking towards the back of the house towards the master bedroom. As I moved through the kitchen, I saw more of the pack. They immediately recognized the vampire scent that I was putting off. They stiffened up, then as I walked into the den, they relaxed just a little. "Bella?" Quill asked.

"Yeah," I said. "I'm disguised just in case Charlie was here."

"When Jake said that you were coming, we thought that he was crazy. Why would you come back, just to make him miserable again? He was finally starting to get his life back together again, then you call him. Now, he's slipped back into that depression that he went into after you left. Add Billy's death to that, and I don't know if we're going to get him back this time. You being here isn't going to help matters," Embry said.

"Look, I'm sorry if I'm making it harder on Jake. He wanted me to come. Otherwise, he wouldn't have called me. Billy was my father-in-law. I loved him like a father. I loved Jake in my own way, too. I'm not here to make things worse for Jake. If you think that by my being here, Jake will be hurt, then I'll go and tell him that I couldn't make it," I said, looking Embry straight in the eyes.

"Why don't you ask Jake if he wants you here?" Jake said from the doorway. He stepped into the room and walked over to me, pulling me into his arms and holding me close to his body. I hugged him back. He pulled me back down the hall towards the master bedroom. When we got there, I sat down on the edge of the bed, and he sat down beside me. "I'm glad that you came. I don't know if I could do this without you. You don't know it, but you've always been my rock. You thought that I was holding you up, but Bella, you held me up too." He reached over and took my hand into his. "Bella, I miss you so much. I don't know what to do without you. I'm so lost. I don't know how to sleep. I don't know how to eat. I don't know how to breath without you, and now I've lost Billy. He was all that I had left after you left me." He turned to face me, and he put his free hand on my face. His hand was so warm, almost hot to the touch.

"Jake, I'm so sorry about Billy. You know that I loved him. I know that you are going to miss him terribly. But, Jake, you have to know that you aren't alone. You have both your pack and Sam's pack. They all care for you. Emily loves you like she's your sister. You have your sisters. By the way, when are they going to get here?"

"They flew in this morning. They are staying at Billy's house," he said. "You know that they're just here for the show. You know that they'll just go right back to their lives. They don't give a shit about me. They never have. They didn't ever care about Billy. They blamed him for Mom's death. I'll bet they celebrated when they heard that he'd died." Jake had tears running down his face. I reached up and wiped them away.

"Jake, you know that isn't true. You know that they just have their lives to live. It has nothing to do with your Mom's death. They're just older than you. They left home while you were still young. You just didn't see a lot of the interaction between them and Billy because you were too young to see their adult relationships. That doesn't mean that they didn't love Billy or that he didn't love them."

"I don't know, Bells. I just feel that they blamed him for the accident. You know that he always blamed himself."

"Yes, I know that he did. I tried to tell him time and again that he wasn't at fault. It was that drunk's fault. He couldn't avoid the accident. He couldn't save her."

"Bella, thank you for coming. I knew that you would. I knew that you wouldn't let me down." He leaned across the space that was between us and kissed me. I pulled away as soon as his lips touched mine.

"Jake, I...um...I mean... um...I'm sorry, Jake, I can't." I stood up from the bed and turned away from him.

He stood up behind me and wrapped his arms around my waist. He started kissing my neck, working his way around to the front of my body, kissing me under my ear, the one place that he knew that I could never stand. I took his head into both of my hands and pushed him away, as gently as I could. "Jake, I can't do this. I'm married to Edward now. I won't cheat on him."

"Bella, I need you. I need you so badly. I need for you to hold me. I need for you to love me once again. Please, Bella. Lie down with me. I'll be good, I swear it."

"Okay, Jake." I walked to our bed, and laid down on my old side. He pulled off all of his clothes except for his boxers, and he climbed in next to me. His arms immediately went around me, just like they did when we were married. I initially tensed up, but he just kept them where they were. He kissed me on the back of my neck, but he never made a move to go forward. We just laid there, him spooning me. Eventually, his kisses became few and far between. I heard his breathing change tempo and timbre. He slid uneasily into sleep. I laid with him, listening to him breathe, wondering if he was going to be alright. He slept for the next three hours before I had to wake him up. He needed to get up so that he could get ready to go to the funeral home for the visitation. He seemed surprised that I was still in bed with him.

"Bella, thank you. That is the first time that I've slept since Billy passed." He leaned over and kissed me again. I pulled away from him.

"Jake. You can't do that. I can't be with you that way. I will stay with you when we get back, but you have to understand. I am no longer your wife, but I will be here for you. Now let's get you ready for visitation."

Jake showered, then he got dressed in his only suit. When the time came to leave, Jake wanted me to ride with him. I told him that I thought that it would be a little bit conspicuous for him to arrive with some older woman who nobody knew. Seth and the others agreed with me. Seth drove Jake to the funeral home, and I came a little bit later with Embry and Quill.

As soon as I walked into the room, Sam grimaced and looked up. He saw me and slowly nodded his head. The other wolves in the room all made some sort of face, but they didn't say anything. Charlie and Sue were in the room already. I looked at him, and I almost fell to my knees. Seth came up to me and took my hand. "He's doing good," he said. "He's happy."

"I hope so," I said. "He deserves it." I walked over to get into the line to view Billy's body. It was fairly long. Billy was a special man to a lot of people. Seth stood with me.

"What is your cover story?" Seth asked.

"I am Stephanie Summers. I'm a relative of his late wife's," I said. Seth stayed with me while I stood in line. When I got to the head of the line, I said, "Jacob, my you have grown. I am Stephanie Summers. I am your mother's cousin. Billy and I kept in touch after your mother passed away. I'm so sorry for your loss. Billy was a wonderful man. He loved your mother more than life. Never doubt that." I looked at Billy, lying there in his only suit, the one that he'd worn to Jake's and my wedding. I suddenly felt overwhelmed with remorse for all of the pain that I'd caused Billy. I gently touched his hands and silently apologized for all of the trouble that I'd caused his family. Jake shook my hand and thanked me for coming. His sisters did the same, and I moved into one of the back corners of the room. I watched Jake as he greeted the mourners, one by one. Jake frequently looked my way. Our eye met, and he would give me a little smile; then he would look away. When eight o'clock came, the only ones left at the funeral home were Jacob, the wolves, Charlie and Sue, and me. Jacob's sisters had gone back to Billy's house about thirty minutes ago, claiming headaches. Charlie went up to the casket with Sue on his arm. He wrapped his other arm around Jacob and said, "Jacob, I just want you to know that I will always be here for you. We were family through Bella, and I accepted you as my son. When we.... lost Bella, I never stopped thinking of you as my son, regardless of the fact that the two of you were going through some tough times when.... when....when the accident happened that took her from us. I don't want you to think that you're alone, Jake. I want you to know that you are still my son, and you will be until the day that I die."

"Thank you, Charlie. I know that if Bella were here, she would like to hear you say that. She would be happy for you and Sue, and she would tell you how much she loves you," Jake said, looking me straight in the eye.

"We've been brought together too many times in this place, haven't we, Jake?" Charlie said.

"Yes, we have," Jake answered. "I don't know what I'm going to do without Billy to take care of and without Bella to love."

"Well, we'll just live one day at a time. Eventually, you'll find another woman who'll love you completely. We both know that Bella was never able to love you completely. One day, you'll find someone who will know that love for you," Charlie said.

"I don't know if I'll ever love anyone but Bella," Jacob said, looking me straight in the eye. I hung my head.

"And I never thought that I'd find someone that I'd love the way that I loved Renee', but I found Sue. Just have faith, Jacob. She's out there. You'll find her. Give it time," Charlie said, leaning over to give Sue a kiss.

"I don't know about that, Charlie. We'll have to see," Jake said. "Let's get out of here." He clapped Charlie on the back, and started walking him towards the door. Everybody got up and started walking out behind him. Charlie and Sue got into a Buick, and Charlie drove away. That left the wolves, Jacob, and me.

"Do you want any of us to stay with you tonight?" Seth asked Jake, looking at him then glancing at me.

"No, thank you guys for everything, but I'll be okay. I just need to sleep. I'll see you in the morning," Jake said.

"He needs to eat something. He hasn't eaten anything since he got the news yesterday," Seth said to me. The wolves all said good-bye to Jake and looked at me with revulsion. After they left, Jake turned to me and asked, "Will you come home with me?"

"Of course," I said, and I got into his car. He drove us to our house. I got out of the car and followed him into the house. I went into the kitchen and prepared him a plate from the food that his neighbors had brought over during the day. I heated it in the microwave and brought it to him on the couch where he had been since we got home. He looked at it then looked at me. He took the plate, and then he began to eat. He finished the plate, and I took it into the kitchen and washed it. When I got back to the den, his head was buried in his hands.

"Why don't you go take a hot shower? It'll make you feel better," I said.

He laughed. "You forgot. I like cool showers. With my body temperature so high, hot showers just make me uncomfortable."

I grimaced. "Yeah, I did forget. Why don't you go and take a cool shower? It'll make you feel better, and you'll be able to get some sleep. I'll be here when you get out."

"Where is Edward?" he asked me out of the blue. "Does he know that you are here?"

"He is in Port Orleans. He rented a room at one of the hotels there, and yes, he knows that I am here. They all know that I'm here. He didn't want me to drive as upset as I was."

"Why were you upset?"

"I loved Billy. You must have known that or you wouldn't have called me. Billy was my second father. I know that he loved me, at least until I left you he did. I hope that he didn't hate me at the end."

"Bella, he always loved you. He was angry at you for hurting me. He was angry at you for not loving me enough. He was angry at you for getting changed, but through it all, he loved you like a daughter. When you 'died,' he had such a hard time not telling Charlie the truth. He loved Charlie, and to see Charlie so broken, God, Bella. It was so hard for all of us. But, I think that the hardest thing for him was knowing that you had chosen not only to leave us, but to join them, our natural enemies, that while you would live forever, you chose to never see us again even though we knew your secret. You never even said good-bye to him."

I knew that he was right. After the fight between Edward and Jacob, I had never been back to La Push. I had never called Billy. I thought that he would be mad at me for leaving Jacob for Edward. While I was right, he was angry at me for leaving, he still loved me as a daughter, and now I had lost the chance to tell him that I was sorry for hurting him.

I walked Jacob to our bedroom, and pushed him into the adjoining bathroom. I waited until I heard the shower start, then I went back into the den and collapsed onto the couch. I took out my cell phone and dialed Edward's number. He answered immediately, as if he was holding the phone in his hands, waiting for me to call.

"Hi, love, how are you doing?" he asked me.

"Not so well. Edward, I never told him good-bye. When I left with you, I never told Billy good-bye. I knew that he'd be upset with me for leaving Jake, so I never spoke with him again."

"He knew that you loved him. He knew that you held a special place in your heart for him. You don't need me to tell you that. You didn't need to call him to tell him good-bye. He loved you anyway, and he knew that you loved him."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, love, I'm sure. During your funeral, I heard his thoughts. He was thinking how much he was going to miss you, and how much he loved you, and how much happiness you had brought into his life. Bella, you were so special to him. He wasn't thinking bad thoughts about you at all. He was thinking about all of the good times, not that there wouldn't be any more. He was thinking of how hard it was to keep your secret from Charlie because Charlie was taking it so hard, but other than that, he didn't have any bad thoughts about you. Where did you get the idea that he held that against you?"

"Jake said that he was angry with me for everything," I whispered.

"Jake is saying that to make you feel sorry for your decision. He shouldn't be working on your emotions like that. Trust me, Bella. I listened to all of their voices during the service. Some of them were angry with you, Sam, Embry, Quill, and some of the others. Seth was both angry and not angry. He both loved you enough to want to see you happy and loved Jacob enough to be mad at you for hurting him so badly. But, not Billy. Billy was just going to miss you."

"Thanks, I needed that. I love you. Even when you're not with me, you have this knack of making me feel better. I'll see you soon."

"Do you need me to come over there tonight?"

"No, I've got things under control. I'll see you tomorrow. Bye."

"Call me back if you need me. Bye."

I hung up the phone and went back to the master bedroom. Jake was out of the shower. He walked into the bedroom naked except for a towel wrapped around his waist. I turned my head while he went to his dresser to get some clothes.

"Oh, for pity's sake, Bella. You've seen me in less then this for years," he said when I turned away from him.

"I'm not married to you anymore, Jake. I'm married to Edward, now," I said.

"That didn't take you long, did it?"

"No, it didn't. I married him the day that I woke up after being changed. There was never any doubt that I wanted to spend every moment of eternity with him."

"Yet, here you are with me."

"Jake, I still care for you..., as a friend, a good friend, but as a friend. I loved Billy, and in my way, I love you. It hurts me to see you hurt. I'm here to see Billy laid to rest and to make sure that you are taken care of. Beyond that, I'll be rejoining my family. We have a life, complicated though it is right now, and I'm a part of that life."

"I know, Bella, but that doesn't mean that I can't enjoy you while I have you here with me, does it? Will you lie down with me? Let me hold you like I used to?"

"Sure, Jake. I have no problem with that. Come on. Let's get you some sleep." I got into the bed on my old side, and Jake cuddled up with me, spooning me. He wrapped his arms around me, hugging me tightly to him. I wrapped his hands in mine. He kissed me once on the back of the neck, and then he snuggled as close to me as he could comfortably get. Within ten minutes, he was snoring. It was something that no matter how long we had been married, I could never get used to.

Some time during the night, Jake started talking in his sleep. He was calling out my name, calling for me to come back, then calling for Billy to come back. He had tears running down his cheeks as he called out our names. I rolled over and wiped the tears away. I gently shook his shoulder. "Jake, honey, Jake, wake up. Jake, it is only a dream. Wake up, honey." He took a deep breath and slowly opened his eyes. He looked at me and pulled me closer to him. He touched his forehead to mine.

He sighed. "You were with Billy. You and he were talking and making jokes about me and the pack. Then you decided that the two of you were going to leave me, that I wasn't worth the trouble. You took his wheelchair and started pushing him away from me, running faster and faster away from me. I tried to catch you, but every time that I thought that I was gaining on you, you just looked over your shoulder and ran faster. I yelled for both of you to come back, but you both just laughed at me and said that I wasn't worth it."

"You know that isn't true, Jake. You know that Billy wouldn't leave you if he were given the choice."

"Yeah, but you did. You were given the choice, and I wasn't worth it. I was second best; I'll always be second best."

"Jake, I don't know what to say. It's not that you were second best. I didn't line you two up and compare you. I didn't compare your eyes, and your hair, and your teeth, and so forth, and rank you to see who would come out on top. I just listened to my heart. I've always been in love with Edward, and I think that you have always known that. You hold a special place in my heart, and I love you a different way than I love Edward. You will always be my good friend, if you'll let me be a friend to you."

"Bella, we made love. We shared the same bed for four years. Are you telling me that all of that meant nothing to you, that it means nothing to you now?"

"Jake, yes, we made love. It wasn't just sex for me either. It was a form of love that we shared. As husband and wife, we made love. But I didn't love you with my whole heart. Not during our whole marriage did I love you entirely. Somewhere in my soul, I was always in love with Edward and hoping that he would return to me."

"And now, in your love for Edward, do you still have any love for me?"

"No, Jake. My love for Edward is all encompassing. I love you as a friend, just as I love Alice and Jasper as friends; just as I love Carlisle and Esme as parents. I'm sorry, but I'm trying to be honest with you. I came back today to try to help you get through this horrible time as a friend, not as a lover."

"Then I guess that you'd better get out of the bed. I don't want to confuse the issue."

"Jake, don't be that way. We're not hurting anything by lying in each other's arms."

"Yes, Bella, we are. I want more from you than you're willing to give. I want to make love to you and feel you against me and around me. It would be the best thing, I think, if you were to leave."

"How far do you want me to go? The couch, the house, the reservation, the state, your life?"

"Bella, I want you. I want you so badly that it hurts. I want to be inside of you, making you come, just like old times. I jack off every night to your memory, and now, here you are. It is all that I can do to not just attack you and force myself on you. You are MY life. You are MY existence. You are MY world. When you leave again, I won't have any reason to go on living. The only reason that I had is going to be buried tomorrow." He buried his face into his hands, and he shook with sobs.

I took him into my arms, just holding him. "Jake. You have plenty to live for. What about your pack? They depend on you to lead them. Seth and Leah care for you. Embry and Quill care for you."

"Yeah, I have friends. Friends, Bella. A fat lot of good friends are going to do for me. I'm alone, Bella. Totally alone. I don't want to go on. I'm done. I'm going to bury Billy tomorrow, then I'm done." He got up and walked out of the bedroom. I followed him into the den. He turned and looked at me, then he walked outside. I started to follow him, but he stripped and phased. He took off into the forest. I just sat down on the sofa and waited.

The next morning, about an hour before the funeral, his pack members started to arrive. I pulled Seth to the side and told him about the conversation that Jake and I had the night before. Seth told me that he'd been worried about Jake since I'd left, and now that Billy had passed away, he was terrified that Jake was going to do something stupid. He wasn't surprised in the slightest at what I'd told him. He'd thought that Jake had been suicidal since I'd left. Jake had been becoming more and more distant, withdrawing from the pack more and more. He was hoping that my coming back even for a short time would help him to regain some sense of worth.

We both went back up front and sat on the couch, anxiously waiting for Jake to come back. At twenty minutes till, he returned to the house. As he was still naked, I went to the bedroom and grabbed a pair of sweats which I took outside for him. He put them on and came inside. He didn't acknowledge anyone; he just went into the master bedroom and took a shower. He came out ten minutes later dressed for the funeral. I had made sure that my disguise was in place, and we all headed back to the funeral home. We were five minutes late, but the funeral director understood. He gave Jake some private time with Billy before closing the casket and beginning the funeral. The rest of the pack stood back. They were serving as pall bearers. I took a seat in the chapel where the funeral was taking place. When Jake was ready, he took his place in the front pew. The funeral director brought the casket into the chapel, and the service began. Jake sat stoically during the service, his eyes never leaving the casket. When the service was over, everyone stood while the funeral director guided the pall bearers out in front of the casket. Then he followed them with the casket. Jake, alone, followed Billy. Then the rest of us were released. We joined the procession to the cemetery where Billy was laid to rest.

The pack, Charlie and Sue, and I followed Jake back to the house. Seth went with Jake to his bedroom, but Jake wouldn't come out. Charlie went back to talk to him, but Jake managed to run him out as well. I prepared Jake a plate and took it back to him. He looked at me with loathing in his eyes. When I told him that I wanted him to eat, he told me that he ate this morning before returning to the house. I put the plate on the dresser and tried to get him to look at me. His eyes never met mine. He sat on the edge of the bed. "Just go, Bella. You stayed long enough to see Billy buried. Your job here is done. Just go. Your being here is just making things worse."

"Promise me that you won't do anything to hurt yourself."

"I can't do that, Bella. But your staying here isn't going to affect that decision either way, so go. Get out of my house. Get out of my life. You being here just makes the hurt all the worse."

"Bye Jacob." I turned and walked out of the room. I heard him get out off of the bed and sling the plate off of the dresser. It hit the wall and shattered. I continued to walk through the house and out of the front door. I walked to my car and got in. Seth ran up to the car. I lowered the window.

"What happened?" he asked me.

"He told me to get out. He said that my being here was making everything worse for him. He said that my being here is not going to make a difference one way or another whether he commits suicide or not, so I'm just going to go. I'm not going to come back to him. His threats of hurting himself are not going to make me leave Edward and come back to him. I don't know if he is playing me or if he is being serious, but it doesn't matter. Seth, take care of him, but if he does follow through with his threat, don't call me. I would rather remember him as the man that I did love at one time."

"Bella, you can't mean that. You have to have some feelings for him. You have to care what happens to him."

"I do, Seth, I do. But, I can't let him put this off on me. He wants me to come back to him. Last night, before he ran away, he told me as much. He wanted me to make love with him. Seth, I don't love him that way any more. I told him as much. I told him that I love him as a friend, but not as a lover. That was when he started laying this whole guilt trip on me. I can't be responsible for his sanity. If he wants me as a friend, then I'll always be there for him, but if he continues to want me as a lover, then I can't be there."

"Can I have your number?"

"Sure, but you have to make sure that Charlie or Sue never come across it." I put my number into Seth's cell phone under the letter "C." I gave him my phone so that he could put his number in mine. Then I started my car and pulled out of the driveway. I drove away from La Push and towards my husband in Port Orleans. It didn't take me long to get there.

When I pulled up in the parking lot of the hotel, he immediately opened the door to his room. I ran into his arms. He pulled me into the room and pushed the door shut with his toe. We kissed for several minutes until he pulled away and said, "I love you, Bella, but you smell like wolf. Do you want to shower with me?"

I started pulling off my clothes on my way to the bathroom. I stepped into the hot water. In seconds, a naked Edward pulled back the shower curtain and joined me. We started kissing again as the hot water trailed down both of our bodies. When we broke apart, a large grin was spread across his face. "I've missed you, love. How are you?"

"I've missed you, too. I'm not great. I'm sad. It was hard for me to say good-bye to Billy, but it was worse to see Jake again. He is so broken. He claims to be suicidal at this point. He says that the only thing that was keeping him alive after I left him was taking care of Billy, and now that Billy is gone, he has nothing to keep him going. He tried to talk me into coming back to him, and when that didn't work, the tried to talk me into making love with him. He just seemed so desperate. When I refused to be entrapped by that kind of talk, he told me to go, just to get out. So I did."

"Should I go and take care of that problem?"

"No, I took care of it." I started washing his hair. I massaged his scalp and could hear a soft purring coming from his throat. "Do you like that?"

"Oh, yeah, you know that I do." I turned him so that I could rinse his hair. Then I put some body wash onto the rag. I worked it into a lather and started with his back. As I washed his body, I also massaged his muscles. I started at the top, then I worked my way down the back of his body, ending up with his calves. Then I turned him around. I added more body wash to the rag. I started again at the top of his body, at his shoulders, and worked my way down his chest and onto his abs. Then I skipped his groin and went to his thighs and shins. Being that I was already on my knees, needing that position to thoroughly wash his lower legs, I turned my attention to his groin. I started at the junction of his waist and his groin, that area where his muscles make a wonderful "V". I lathered it with the rag, then used my hands to work the soap into the area, making sure that it was as clean as it could be. Then I worked my way up from his upper legs into their junction with his hips, I made sure to use plenty of soap as I worked the muscles making sure that they were also clean. Then I got some body wash directly on my hands, quickly working it up into a lather, and applied it to his balls and shaft which had grown to stand up at attention. I gently massaged both, rolling his balls between my hands, taking time to completely lather them, not missing a spot. Then I went to his shaft, rubbing it up and down, making sure that each millimeter was clean. When I was sure that everything was clean, I could tell by the way that he was breathing, I moved out of the water stream and rinsed him off so that there was no soap on his body. He groaned as I turned him around to get the soap off of his back, but when I turned him back around to get it off of his chest and abdomen, he moaned again. As I held his balls to rinse the soap off of them, he groaned for the third time. After making sure that he was perfectly clean, I leaned into him, and took him into my mouth. He groaned for the fourth time, and he began moving his hips to gain some friction. I took him as deep as I could, no longer having a gag reflex. He gently took my head into his hands and guided my head a little faster so that I would meet him as he thrust forward. I took his balls into my hands, barely massaging them, and he groaned for the fifth time. His thrusts began to become more urgent, and I ran my tongue in circles. He gasped and pressed into my mouth as deeply as he could. He came, erupting into the back of my throat, and I swallowed all that he had to give me, sucking him dry. I looked up at him when he was spent, and his head was thrown back; his eyes were closed; and a beautiful smile was on his lips.

I stood and put my arms around him. I held onto him as if he were about to leave me forever. After a few minutes, he opened his eyes and looking into mine, he kissed me. He didn't have to say a word to tell me how much he loved me. He took some shampoo and washed my hair, being sure to give my scalp a thorough massage. Then he washed my body. When he was done, he cut off the water and lifted me out of the shower. He gently placed me on the ground and took a towel and dried me off. He quickly dried himself, then he picked me up and carried me into the bedroom and gently laid me on the bed. He climbed in beside me and kissed me, our lips gently brushing against each other, caressing each other. His tongue gently ran against my lower lip, and I opened my mouth, allowing it entrance, meeting it with my own, allowing a ballet to start, each of us darting here or there, only to be met by the other, matching movements, gliding over each other in an attempt to make the other its own.

As our tongues danced, his hands glided over my body, lingering over my breasts, before continuing to move lower and work their way to my moist center where he gently slid one finger, then another into me. He worked them around inside of me, touching that wonderful spot that only he knew how to find every time. I unconsciously spread my legs, giving him more access, and he pulled his fingers out as he leaned over me and entered me, burying himself completely. We continued to kiss as he made love with me, moving so slowly, pulling all of the way out before slamming himself into me again. I found myself with my legs wrapped around his waist, pulling him into me as he thrust forward. It wasn't long before I was calling out his name, begging for him to have me harder and faster. He accommodated me, and before I knew what was happening, we were both experiencing amazing orgasms. I was clenching him, and he was exploding inside of me, filling me.

We held each other for an hour, kissing and touching, making up for time lost during the past week. We made love again, this time, with the passion of people who needed each other fast and hard, not taking time for foreplay, just ravaging each other. When we were done, we packed our clothes, and Edward checked out of the hotel. We left to return home. We drove for the rest of the day and the entire night.

We arrived home Sunday morning. The family was glad to see us again. Esme and Carlisle welcomed us with open arms. They wanted to know how Charlie was, and I told them that he looked happy with Sue. He never suspected who I was, so I was able to watch them without drawing attention to myself. When they asked me about Jake, I hesitated. I wanted to tell them that he was good, but I didn't know if I believed that or not. Edward answered in my stead saying that Jake had put a guilt trip on me about leaving him all alone.

During the day, we talked to Alice and Rosalie about what they'd done about their names. They had both changed their names to reflect their marriages. Edward and I talked about it, and we both decided that I would change my name to Bella Cullen. He told me that he couldn't wait for me to take his name, and I told him that I'd be honored to have his name. Then he went up to his room and got his mother's ring. He put it on my finger, and I have to admit, I'd never been so happy in my life. Today had been a pretty good day all around.


	17. Chapter 17

**Disclaimer: Stephenie Meyer owns it all.**

**Chapter 17 – The Skit**

Monday morning arrived with the sun breaking through the clouds. Alice confirmed that the whole day would be filled with sunshine, so Edward and I turned over and went right back to what we were doing, making out. It had been way too long since we'd been in each other's arms, and we had all of that time to make up for. We fully had no intention of getting dressed all day, when Emmett barged into our room. I swear that he would have jumped into our bed if he hadn't recognized that we were in more than just a simple embrace at the time.

"Come on, you two. There's plenty of time for that later. I want to go hunting with the family. Everybody else has agreed to go. You two are the last ones. Please," he whined.

We just ignored him, and Edward continued to make love to me, and I continued to make love to him. We were getting close, and our breathing was changing, turning into those small pants that mark the transition from enjoying the feeling of being one together to needing to move just a little faster with each other, take each other just a little deeper with each thrust.

"You two are going to come, aren't you?" he asked, shaking the bed.

"If you will leave us alone we will in about thirty seconds," Edward managed to say around our kisses. "If you don't want to hear us, you'll leave."

"Ewww gross, guys," he said, moving away from the bed as I began to call out Edward's name. He began to groan as he pumped into me harder. Then I yelled out and he went stiff as we came together. He collapsed on top of me, kissing my neck, little pecks here and there, coming down from his high, as I lowered my legs from his back. I pulled his face over to mine and kissed his lips again, then snuggled my face into his neck.

"Okay, you guys are finished. Now will you two come hunting with the family?" Emmett said, coming over to the edge of the bed. Edward grabbed a pillow and slung it at his head. Connection. Emmett was dumbfounded. He just looked back at the two of us, prepared to run. "Come on guys, please. We haven't had a family hunting trip since we've been here. Please!"

I looked at Edward, and he looked at me. While we'd wanted to spend all day in bed making up for lost time, Emmett was right. We'd never even been on a family hunting trip since I'd been changed. I nodded to Edward, and he sighed. "Okay, Emmett. If you'll give us twenty minutes to shower and get dressed, we'll join the family on a hunting trip."

Emmett jumped into the bed with us and gave us both a large, sloppy kiss on the cheek. "Thanks guys. This means so much to me." He jumped off of the bed and raced out of the room. He ran downstairs yelling, "They're going to go with us! They're going to go with us."

"I guess that he's happy," I said, looking at Edward.

"It doesn't take much to make Emmett happy, sometimes," Edward said. "Come on, love, let's get our showers." We made quick work of our showers and dressed in comfortable clothes. We met our family downstairs in fifteen minutes. They were standing around, waiting on us.

Carlisle stepped forward and took my hands into his own. "Bella, we are so glad to have you as a part of our family. Today marks the first of many family hunts that you will be accompanying us on. I just hope that you don't become discouraged by our antics. We all tend to have fun and let our hair down, as they say, when we go out as a family. I hope that you enjoy this time." He let go of my hands, then he said. "Let's go."

We all walked out of the back door and to the forest edge. Then as if by some unspoken signal, they all started running into the forest. Edward took my hand, and we ran after them. It was a wonderful sensation, to have the wind hitting me in the face and flowing through my hair. We ran as if we had no care in the world, and to tell the truth, at that moment in time, I didn't.

I couldn't tell you how far we ran. All that I knew is that it was for hours. The sun was high in the sky before we stopped. The forest was thick with tall trees. I just stood there, amazed by the glory of the forest. As I was immersed in my wonderment, Carlisle came up to me and said, "Bella, would you like to go hunt with me?"

I guess I had a puzzled look on my face because he chuckled before he said, "Usually, on family hunts, we pick other partners to hunt with. We make different pairings that we usually don't get to experience during regular hunts so that we can get to talk to each other more."

"I would love to go hunt with you, Carlisle," I said. We broke off from the group, and he led me into the forest. I followed him, and we talked about the adjustments that I had made at school and the intense boredom that I was experiencing. He told me that the others had experienced the same thing, and that with time, I would learn to handle everything that was thrown at me. I laughed at this telling him that the others still, after all these years, hadn't learned to handle the jealousy. He agreed, saying that as vampires, our emotions towards our loved ones were very intense.

He smelled some wolves, and told me that he wanted to watch me hunt. I still hadn't found the scent, yet, but after walking another fifty feet or so, I picked up on the delectable scent. I went into tracking and stalking mode, and managed to take down the one that I was aiming for on the first pass. Carlisle took down two of them, and we both fed. He said that I was doing very well for my age, that I was a natural. I didn't think that he would lie to me, so his complement was heartwarming. After I found another wolf and fed again, we headed back to the family.

The others were already back, sitting around in a lop sided circle. I took my place next to Edward, and Carlisle took his place next to Esme. Edward took me into his arms and pulled me close into him. We spent the rest of the morning with them telling stories about their pasts. They each tried to outdo the next one. Rosalie would tell a horror story about Alice shopping, then Alice would tell a story about Rosalie and Emmett's sex life. Then Emmett would tell a story about Jasper; then Jasper would tell a story about Edward who would tell something on Carlisle. I don't think that I'd ever laughed so much in my entire life. Who knew that Carlisle, perfect, model citizen, Carlisle would lead an uprising during the Boston Tea Party? OMG! And he couldn't even drink the tea that he was fighting for!

When the sun started to go down, we started for home. We ran together as a family, no one trying to outdistance anyone else. We got home just after nightfall. There were several messages on the answering machine. Why vampires needed answering machines, I didn't understand. The first one was from the school, wondering where the Cullen and Hale children were. The second was from the hospital asking if Carlisle could take the night shift in the Emergency Room tonight. The third was from the Denali clan just wanting to talk to Esme. Carlisle called the hospital to see if they still needed him to come in. They had found someone else, so he got to stay home.

Instead of breaking into couples and going our separate ways, we all decided to have some more family time. They continued to tell stories about each other, some silly, some serious, but most were funny. I enjoyed myself immensely. They talked about everything from living without electricity to not having automobiles, to having to wash clothes on washboards. They had all lived through so much of history. They all remembered the Great Depression, the San Francisco earthquake, and the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Jasper remembered most of the Civil War, having participated in many of the battles. And Carlisle. Carlisle remembered the settlement of the thirteen American Colonies, The Declaration of Independence, the War for American Independence, the French and Indian War, the Barbary Pirates, The Monroe Doctrine, The War of 1812, and almost everything that I could remember to ask him about. He was a walking encyclopedia. He was amazing. He could tell us about the development of the telephone, and the airplane. Through it all, however, he said that the greatest invention of his expansive lifetime was the development of antibiotics. Before the development of antibiotics, millions of people died from simple things such as strep throat.

We talked until morning. As the sun came up, we realized that Tuesday would be cloudy. I was a little bit disappointed. My first sunny, family day was absolutely spectacular. I couldn't wait until we could have another. I had no idea that Carlisle was so interesting to talk to. I had no idea that he had experienced so much during his lifetime.

Edward and I made our way upstairs to shower and get dressed for school. I made sure that I had on my ring, not that I would ever take it off. Then I made sure that Edward had our copy of our marriage license. We rode together to school and went straight to the office. We walked up to Mrs. Copeland and when we got her attention, Edward said, "Good morning, Mrs. Copeland. Bella and I would like to officially change her last name. Here is a copy of our marriage license. Bella would like to be known as Bella Cullen, please."

Mrs. Copeland just glared at us. She snatched the paper out of Edward's hand and went to the copy machine to make a copy of it. She then handed it back to him. She went to a filing cabinet and pulled out a chart. She went to a typewriter and made a new sticker which she put on the chart. Then she filled out a piece of paper which she handed to Bella. "Get this signed by all of your teachers and bring it back at the end of the day," she growled.

Just then, Mr. Barnard walked out of his office. "How are you, Bella? I hope that your friend is doing okay."

"He's not handling the situation very well. I'm a little bit worried about him," I said. "I'm afraid that he may be suicidal. His mother passed away about 10 years ago in an auto accident. He really has no one left besides some friends."

"I hope that it works out for him. I guess that you are here today to change your name like your siblings did last week."

"Yes sir. You may call me Bella Cullen as of today."

"Well, Bella Cullen, it is a pleasure to meet you. Congratulations, Edward. You have quite a wife there. You'd better take good care of her."

"Forever, sir. I'll take good care of her forever."

"Well, get to class. I'm sure that you have a sheet of paper that you want to show to Mrs. Anderson."

"Yes sir," we both said with smiles on our faces.

We walked out of the office and went to our locker. We got out our books for our next two classes and went to English. Mrs. Anderson was at her desk, and she looked up as we entered the room. We walked up to her desk, and I gave her the slip from the office for her to sign. She signed it and pulled our her grade book. She made the change in it and handed me the slip back. She didn't look at us, but Edward placed our marriage license in front of her face. "Mrs. Anderson. We just wanted to show this to you. We wanted you to know that despite your efforts to stick your nose in our family's business, we were telling the truth. All that you managed to do was to cause our family hurt and heartbreak. You've caused our parents to be publicly embarrassed. I think that you owe us all an apology," he said. She looked at our marriage license dated August 15th, 2009. Edward picked it back up, and we went to our desks. We were way behind in Hamlet, having missed both Friday and Monday. Mrs. Anderson continued going over the play, assigning the next two acts to outline for homework. We had to catch up to where we were plus do the additional acts. She also told us that she had announced yesterday that we wouldn't be having an exam on Hamlet, rather, we would be expected to turn in a research paper on any topic dealing with the play. She gave Edward, Alice, and me a handout with specific requirements for the paper. It would be due November 2. It would take the place of our first quarter exam.

We went to our second period class, and I took my slip to be signed to Mr. Williams. He smiled when he read the note, and after making the change to his grade book, he said to the class, "Okay, let's get settled. I would like to announce that Bella Hale is now going by Bella Cullen. It seems that the rumors that have been going around school are at least in part true. Edward and Bella are, in fact, married. I assume that you guys finally got your copy of your marriage license in the mail, then."

"Yes sir. It came in last Thursday. Bella and I had to go home, I mean to Alaska because of the death of one of her friend's father on Thursday morning. We spent the weekend there for the funeral," Edward said.

"I'm sorry for your loss, Bella," Mr. Williams said. "Okay, let's get back to Chemistry." He went on with the lesson. We hadn't missed anything as far as classwork or homework went while we were out. In fact, we were well versed in what he was going over in class.

Morning break was normal. We spent the time with our siblings. We talked about nothing in particular. Near the end of break, a group of football players came up to us. "Which one of you broke Jay's jaw?" the largest one of them asked.

None of us even turned to look at them. We were tired of dealing with challenges. "I said, which one of you broke Jay's jaw?"

We looked at each other. I turned and looked at them. "I did," I said, turning back to my siblings. Emmett gave me a high five. When our hands met, there was a loud _clash_.

"We're not joking. If you don't want all of us coming down on all of you, someone had better answer us," the large one said.

"She told you that she did it," Rosalie said, laughing along with Alice.

"Yeah, like a little girl like her could have beat up Jay," another one of them said.

"I could beat up you," I said, motioning to the largest one of the group.

"In your dreams, little girl," he said, pushing me on the shoulder. I held my ground and didn't let his push move me. He held his shoulder where it was jammed back against him when my body didn't give.

"Do you want to arm wrestle? I'll bet you $100 that I can beat any of you," I said.

"You're joking, right," the largest one said.

"Nope, but we don't have much time before the bell rings." I reached into Edward's back pocket and pulled out his wallet. I opened it and pulled out a $100 bill.

"Using my money, honey," he said.

"My purse is in my locker. I'll pay you back when we go inside, lover," I told him.

"Um, I don't have $100 with me. I'll have to bring it tomorrow," he said.

"Fine," I said. We moved to a bench, and he told the kids on the bench to move. We knelt on each side of the bench and put our elbows on it. His group followed him, but my family stayed where they were.

"Don't you want any witnesses?" he asked.

"There are plenty of people here to see me beat you," I said.

"Okay, if you say so," he said. We gripped each other's hands. "On three. One. Two. Three." He started trying to move my hand. I just held him steady. He started putting some strength into it. His muscles were straining. You could see them quivering. When he started to break out in a sweat, I started to move his hand backwards. I kept steady pressure on his arm, forcing it backwards.

All of a sudden, I heard, "Bella, stop! You're going to break his arm." I immediately let go. His arm shot forward. He gasped and grabbed his forearm. I turned to Alice and in vampire speak asked her if I quit soon enough. She said that I did, that he was fine. I walked back over to my family and put the $100 back in Edward's wallet. I sat down with them and waited to see if he was going to come back over.

While we were waiting, Emmett decided to challenge me again. He didn't know that I was holding back. He thought that he was strong enough to beat me now. He thought that my newborn strength was diminishing. While I wanted to wait until we got home, he insisted that we arm wrestle here. I finally agreed when Alice smiled and told me to go ahead. We walked over to the bench. "What are the terms, Emmie?"

"If I win, you and Eddie have to stay apart for a week," Emmett said.

"Okay, then fair is fair, if I win, you and Rose have to stay apart for a week," I said. Rose looked furious.

"Deal, little sister," Emmett said.

We both knelt on either side of the bench. We grasped hands, and on the count of three, I started moving Emmett's hand backwards, slow and steady. The look on his face was priceless. When he started struggling, I slammed his hand back.

"Please, Bella, please don't hold me to our bet. Rosie is going to kill me. She is going to rip me apart," Emmett said.

"Don't worry, Emmie, we'll find all of the parts and put you back together," I said, laughing. "When will you learn? I'm still stronger than you. Now, who is going to be sleeping downstairs?"

"It sure as hell won't be me," Rosalie said coming up to Emmett and hitting him in the back of the head. "Way to go, brainless. I guess that I'll be pleasuring myself for the next week."

"Bella, can I watch?" Emmett asked.

"Nope. Sorry Emmett. You are the one who made the bet. I just followed your lead. Edward, aren't we going to have a great week?" He grinned as he came up to me and wrapped his arms around my waist.

"Never bet against Alice, and never bet against Bella," he said.

The bell rang signaling the end of break. We went inside and got our things out of our lockers. I took my purse with me, having announced that I had $100 in it. We went to World History. I took my note up to Mr. Edwards who signed it and made the change in his grade book. We took our seats and took notes. Mr. Edwards announced that we had a test on Thursday. We had missed notes for two days, but Alice looked at us and smiled. She had things under control.

When we went to Algebra II, Mrs. Davis signed my note and made the appropriate change in her grade book. Then she handed Edward and me our tests from last week. We, again, had perfect papers. After she had gone over the assignment for the day, she called Edward, Alice, and me up to her desk. She asked us straight out if we cheated. We told her no. She asked us how much Algebra II challenged us. We all told her that it wasn't very challenging at all. We could look at the book and understand it within a minute or two. She asked us to prove it. She sat us at different chairs, and she turned to the next section. She watched me look at the example and work the problems within a minute or two of turning the page. Then she did the same with Edward, then Alice. She brought us back to her desk. She wrote down the entire week's homework and gave us a copy of it. She told us that she would have the rest of the quarter's work ready for us tomorrow. By the end of the quarter, she would have the rest of the year's plans for us. We would have to take the exams with the rest of the class, but we could work the rest of the class at our own pace. We thanked her, and started on our homework which we turned in before class was over.

We went to lunch and after we got our props, we talked about Emmett's stupid bet. We wondered why he would want to keep Edward and me apart. I mean, we had just gotten back together after being apart for five years. We were for all intensive purposes, newlyweds. I was still a newborn. There was so much new in our relationship that we were still learning each other. He and Rose had been together for the better part of seventy years. When you compared our five years to their seventy years, I had a hard time understanding why exactly he wanted to split us up. He just shrugged his shoulders and said that he was a little bit jealous. I asked him who he was jealous of, and he said both of us. He was jealous of Edward because he got to spend so much time with his new little sister, and he was jealous of me because I had taken away so much of Edward's time that he used to spend with him and Jasper. I didn't know what to say. It was true; I was spending all of my time with Edward. I needed to leave him some time to spend with his brothers. I told Emmett that I would try to give Edward some time with him.

When the bell rang, we went to our sixth period class, Geometry. Mrs. Jones signed my slip of paper, then gave us our tests back. We scored perfect papers again. Mrs. Jones just stared at us. She told us to take our seats, so we did. She was explaining today's lesson, when out of the blue, Alice started staring straight ahead. I knew that she was having another vision, but when she almost yelled out, "Charlie," I grabbed her and turned her in her seat.

"What? What about Charlie?" I asked her.

"Oh, God!" Edward said.

"What?" I turned to him and almost stood in my seat. "What about Charlie?" My voice was starting to rise.

"Would you three like to share with the rest of the class?" Mrs. Jones asked us.

"Alice, what about Charlie?" I was starting to panic. She was still in her vision. I turned back to Edward who was watching what Alice was seeing. "Edward? Please! What about Charlie?"

"He's going to be shot. He's going to be killed," Edward said.

"No! When?" I asked, panic building.

"Halloween," Alice said, coming back to us.

"Or Halloween party at the school to be more specific," Edward said. "He's going to chase an armed robber from the gas station into the school Halloween party. He's going to put himself on the line to prevent the guy from taking hostages. They will shoot each other, and both will die."

"We've got to stop it. We've got to go back. We've got to save him. I can't let him die.

"What are the three of you talking about? What makes you think that you know what is going to happen on Halloween? You are trying to scare the rest of the class. You are trying to pull a prank on the class. And all you are doing is interrupting this class. You may have some of the other teachers fooled, but Mrs. Anderson and I have your number. Christian, you are in charge of the class. You three, come with me," Mrs. Jones commanded.

Alice, Edward, and I were talking in vampire volume and weren't listening to her. "_Halloween is Saturday night. The Spartans will have a game on Friday night, so the party should be on Saturday night. If we leave Thursday, we should be there in plenty of time to prevent the shooting_," Edward said.

"_Do you see who does it? Can we stop him from even going to the gas station?_" I asked Alice.

Mrs. Jones grabbed Alice by the shoulder. "Did you hear what I said? I said for the three of you to come with me!"

Alice shook her head at me, then she looked at Mrs. Jones and said, "I'm sorry. What did you say?"

Mrs. Jones' face was extremely red. "I said for the three of you to come with me. You will not interrupt my class like that."

Alice, Edward, and I got our books together and stood. "_Did you not see him, or can we not stop him?" _I asked Alice.

"_I didn't see him,_" Alice said as we followed her into the hall. We were immediately met by Rosalie, Emmett, and Jasper.

"_Bella, it will be okay. We will protect Charlie. We'll all go,_" Jasper said.

"_Don't worry, Bellaboo. This guy won't have a chance against us. Charlie will be fine,_" Emmett said. He moved forward and gave me a hug.

"What are you three doing out of class? Get back to your class immediately! You shouldn't be wandering the halls. Bella, follow me!" Mrs. Jones said.

Edward, Alice, and I followed her to the office. Emmett, Rosalie, and Jasper took a seat on one of the benches outside of the office. "We need to see Mr. Barnard, please," she told Mrs. Copeland who looked like the cat who'd swallowed the canary.

Mrs. Copeland picked up her phone and dialed Mr. Barnard's number. "Mr. Barnard, Mrs. Jones is here with the Cullen and Hale children. She would like to see you."

"Send them in," he sighed.

"Follow me," Mrs. Jones said, motioning to the three of us.

We followed her into his office. He motioned for us to sit down in the chairs across from his desk. We sat down, and looked at each other. Mr. Barnard intercommed for Mrs. Copeland to bring Mrs. Jones a chair, and after she did, he motioned for Mrs. Jones to close the door behind her. She did, and he motioned for her to sit. Then, he said, "Mrs. Jones, what is so bad that you felt the need to leave your classroom to escort these students to my office?"

"I was in the middle of teaching my lesson when these three started talking, interrupting the class," Mrs. Jones said.

"You couldn't handle students talking in your class? Do you not have better control of your classes than that?" Mr. Barnard asked her.

"Normally, I would say that I do have control of the class, but with what these three were saying, I thought that you needed to be made aware. They completely had the class's attention, and they were saying some things that could be taken as terroristic threats," she said.

"These three? Come on, Mrs. Jones, are you sure of what you are saying? You and Mrs. Anderson have been accusing this family of things since they started school here."

"There is something not natural about their family," she said. "I'm not the only one that suspects that there is something wierd about them."

Edward looked at Alice and nodded. Then he nodded again. I knew that they were having a silent conversation.

"What exactly was said," Mr. Barnard reluctantly asked.

"Well, first, just out of the blue, Alice said, 'Charlie.' Then Bella said, 'What about Charlie?' Then Edward said, 'Oh God!' Then Bella asked them both, 'What about Charlie?' as if Edward would know what Alice was thinking. Then Bella begged Edward. She said, 'Edward, please! What about Charlie?' And he said, 'He's going to be shot. He's going to be killed.' Then Bella said, as if Edward could predict the future, 'No! When?' And then Alice pops up and says, 'Halloween.' And then Edward corrects her, saying, 'Or the Halloween party at the school to be more specific. He's going to chase an armed robber from the gas station to the school Halloween party. He's going to put himself on the line to prevent the guy from taking hostages. They will shoot each other, and both will die.' That was when Bella freaked out and yelled out, 'We've got to stop it. We've got to go back. We've got to save him. I can't let him die.' They were talking about a shooting that hasn't even happened yet. Then the whole class went crazy. They started talking about someone bringing a gun to the Halloween party and someone getting shot. One of the girls started to cry. Then the students started asking them how they were going to stop a shooting. It was all that I could do to get them calmed down."

I was watching Mr. Barnard's face. It was full of shock and disbelief. He stared at Mrs. Jones like she was crazy. Then I looked at Edward who was listening to Alice. He had a frown on his face.

"_I screwed up majorly, Bella. I let someone know that I can read minds. This is bad. I don't know how we are going to get out of this,_" Edward said.

"_I screwed up, too,_" Alice said. "_I let them know that I can see the future. We have added to their suspicions. This is very bad. I don't think that we're going to be able to stay here any longer._"

I took their hands in each of mine and gave them a squeeze. I was too worried about Charlie to care right now about what Mr. Barnard was going to do to us for talking in class. Wait, did Alice just say that we would have to leave. Did she mean leave town? Move? Again? I turned to look at Alice. "_What do you mean, leave? Do you mean move? As in leave town?_"

Alice nodded her head. Mr. Barnard said, "What do the three of you have to say about that?"

Alice and Edward were communicating again. Edward would move his eyes up and down or side to side. Mr. Barnard just watched Edward. Finally, he said, "Edward, what exactly are you doing? Is there something wrong with your eyes?"

"No sir. There isn't anything wrong with my eyes," he said.

"I asked you a question. Do you three have anything to say about what Mrs. Jones just told me?" Mr. Barnard asked.

"Not really, sir," Edward said.

"Do you deny saying what she said that you said?" Mr. Barnard asked.

"No sir. We don't deny saying it," Edward said looking down at his lap.

"Okay. Mrs. Jones, you may return to your classroom," Mr. Barnard said. Mrs. Jones looked up sharply and in wonderment. "Your help is no longer necessary," he said. She stood up and left the room, pulling the door shut just a little hard as she left. "I think that I deserve an explanation. I have read your files. None of you have ever been in trouble in your prior school. Your grades are perfect. Yet, since you have been here, you have had in school suspension; you have been placed in foster care; you have missed a lot of school, some of it questionable; and now, you have interrupted class with tales of a Halloween shooting that hasn't happened yet getting the whole room into an uproar. What were you three thinking?"

"Would you believe me if I said that we were just trying to liven up her class a little?" Edward asked. "She is one of the most boring teachers that we've ever had, and we've known that she doesn't like us since the first day that we were in her class."

"So am I to understand that you three planned out this whole scene to act out in her class just to get a rise out of Mrs. Jones? There is to be no shooting on Halloween?" Mr. Barnard asked.

"How would we know that? Halloween is still five days away," Edward said taking my hand and giving it a squeeze. He was letting me know that we still had plenty of time to get to Forks to save Charlie.

"You know that I'm going to have to call your parents in on this one, don't you? You're lucky that I don't call the police," Mr. Barnard said. He hit the intercom button for Mrs. Copeland and asked her to bring our charts into the office. She must have had them ready because it didn't take her five seconds before she was knocking on his door. She handed him the charts and stepped back outside of the office, shutting the door. Mr. Barnard opened the chart on top and called our home number. He got Esme on the second ring. He explained that the three of us were in the office and that he needed her and Carlisle to come in immediately to take care of the problem. Then he told us to wait in the outer office until our parents arrived.

We went into the outer office and took seats. Emmett, Jasper, and Rosalie were still waiting outside the office. They had heard everything that was said inside the office, so they knew what was happening. They knew that we had royally screwed up. They also knew that in all probabilities that we would have to move. We couldn't communicate with them, because they were too far away to hear us at vampire volume, but everyone else could hear us if we talked loud enough for them to hear. They, however, could talk to us.

"We'll wait on the family discussion before we begin to pack, but I don't see any way that we're going to be able to stay. That is two teachers that have suspicions about us. Are they strong suspicions, Edward?" Rosalie asked. Edward nodded, making it look like he was putting his head in his hands.

"Are they suspicious that we are different or do they know what we are?" asked Jasper.

"The first," Edward said.

"Excuse me, did you say something, Mr. Cullen?" Mrs. Copeland asked.

"No ma'am," Edward said, looking back down at his lap.

After thirty minutes, we heard Carlisle's car pull into the parking lot. We looked at each other. We knew that they would be upset by our carelessness. We had ruined everything for the family. It only took them three minutes to walk from the car to the office. They looked at the three outside, then they came inside, looking down at us. "Exactly why have we been called away from work to this office?" Carlisle asked us.

"Ah, Dr. Cullen, Mrs. Cullen. Won't you both come into my office. Kids, please join us. Carlisle and Esme led the way. They took chairs across from Mr. Barnard's desk. The girls took the other two chairs. Edward stood. "Let me get you a chair, Edward," Mr. Barnard said.

"That's alright, Mr. Barnard. I'll stand," Edward said.

"Okay, then. Let's get this unfriendly business started. Dr. Cullen, Mrs. Cullen, I'm so sorry to have to call you away from your busy day, but unfortunately, this matter can't wait. Edward, Bella, and Alice have done something today that you need to be made aware of. Then we can discuss punishment. I have always believed that kids should own up to their mistakes, so I am going to allow one of them to explain what exactly happened today. If I need to edit or add any information, then I will do so as I see fit," Mr. Barnard said.

"Fine. Edward," Carlisle said.

"You are going to be quite shocked by what I am going to tell you, Mom, Dad." Edward moved so that he was between them and Mr. Barnard. "Today, during Geometry, Alice, Bella, and I had a conversation, out loud, in front of the class. We did it to interrupt the class because Mrs. Jones doesn't like us very much, and because her class is boring. We made up a skit where Alice had a vision. She called out the name, 'Charlie,' then I acted like I could read her mind. I basically said, 'Oh God!' and Bella acted like she wanted to know what was going on, asking first Ali then me what was happening. I answered her that Charlie is going to get shot and killed."

Esme gasped and took a deep breath. Carlisle blinked a couple of times. Edward waited a couple of seconds to let this settle, then he went on. "Bella got upset and started asking when, and Alice came out of her trance and said 'Halloween.' I corrected her and told Bella that it would be at the Halloween party at the school, that Charlie would interrupt an armed robbery at the gas station and chase the guy to the school where he would exchange gunfire with the robber, and they would both die.'

Esme was starting to breath faster now, and Carlisle leaned over and whispered something to her. She nodded her head then looked at me. She had immense sadness on her face. Edward went up to her and put his hands on her shoulders. "Esme, I'm so sorry that I'm having to tell you this. I knew that it would upset you." She looked back at Edward. I knew if she could cry, she would be. I looked at Carlisle. He had a stunned look on his face.

"So, you and Bella and Alice had this conversation in front of your class. Is that what you're trying to tell your mom and me?" Carlisle asked.

Edward breathed a sigh of relief. "Yes sir," he said. "We obviously weren't thinking."

"Obviously they were making the whole thing up. Halloween is five days from now. There is no way that they could know that someone is going to get shot on Halloween," Mr. Barnard said.

"Of course not," Carlisle said.

"So you see our problem," Mr. Barnard said. "Not only did they disrupt class, they frightened a roomful of students. I would be within my rights to report this to the police. I am not going to do that, however. I don't know what is going on with them, but I feel that they are crying out for some kind of help. They all have spotless records at their old school. Their record here is anything but spotless. The only thing that they have going for them here is their grades, and a few of the teachers are beginning to question those. Now for their punishment. I am afraid that I have no choice. I am going to have to suspend them for a week. Take them home. Talk with them. Find out what is going through their minds. They may need to start some form of counseling. If they get into trouble again, I will have no other choice but to expel them from this school. They are walking a thin line, Dr. Cullen, Mrs. Cullen. You need to get a grip on them. This kind of behavior may not continue." Mr. Barnard stood up and held out his hand to Carlisle.

Carlisle stood and shook his hand. He held out his hand to Esme who took it and stood up. Then he looked at me. He could see the panic still on my face. He put his arm around my shoulder and gave me a kiss on the top of the head. "_We're going to see to it that Charlie is okay. Don't worry, Bella. We're going to take care of him, alright._" I nodded my head and hugged him back. Then Edward came up to me and put his arm around my shoulders and Alice patted me on the back. I knew that my family was with me. They wouldn't let anything happen to Charlie.

We met up with the others outside of the office. Carlisle said, "Let's all go home." We all walked together to the parking lot. We climbed into our cars and drove to the house. We all gathered in the dining room at our places without being told. When Carlisle took his place at the head of the table, he said, "Okay, damage control. Did they buy the story, Edward?"

"Mr. Barnard did, but there are at least four teachers at the school that are suspicious of us and the family. Mrs. Anderson, Mrs. Jones, Mr. Ash, and Mrs. Spears. Mrs. Jones doesn't believe that it was an act. She really thinks that Alice saw the future. She isn't sure about what I was doing, but she thinks that I had some way of telecommunication going on with Alice. She doesn't quite know what. The others think that the whole family is wrong. They haven't started guessing inhuman, yet, but they don't think that we are normal. They are thinking genetic engineering, experimental drugs, government infiltrators, such nonsense. A couple are thinking witness protection program," Edward said.

"This town has been nothing but problems since we moved here," Rosalie said. "First, all of the jealousy, then the foster care situation, then the werewolf issue, then Billy dying, now this. I say that we pack the hell up and get the hell out of here. We pack today and tomorrow, go save Charlie on Friday and Saturday, then leave Black River Falls for at least another ninety years, maybe a hundred and twenty years or so."

"Here, Here!" Jasper said.

"I'm game," Emmett said.

"Sounds great to me," I said.

"I'm in," Alice said.

"Count me in all the way," Edward said.

"Well, it looks like we've been out voted, Esme," Carlisle laughed, looking at Esme.

"What? I totally agree with them," Esme said.

"I didn't say that I didn't agree," Carlisle said. "Where do we want to go?"

"Why don't we go to Lebanon? It's been more than eighty years since we've been there, and we can go to college at Dartmouth after we finish high school, and if Bella wants to, we can go straight to medical school again," Edward suggested.

"That would put us there eleven years. That is doable, I think," Carlisle said. Let me make sure that the hospital has an opening. He opened his laptop and after about five minutes he said, "Well, would you look at that, they are looking for both a surgeon and an ER physician. I could fill either position. Okay. Let's go. First, this time, we don't rent a U-Haul from near here. Go to Mankato outside of Minneapolis to rent it. Tell them that we're taking it to Toledo. Then, in Toledo, we'll turn it in after changing out with another one that we'll get in Lima. As far as they know, we'll be in Toledo. Emmett, do you and Rose have that covered?"

"Yes sir. Done. I'll have the U-Haul here no later than tonight. If Mankato doesn't have one, then I'll start shopping around going outward from there," he said.

"Jasper, papers. We'll need another new set. The marriage licenses that we have should be good for this trip. The dates aren't too far out. Same thing, we came from Denali. Starting as Sophomores and Juniors. Just have him touch up the dates on the ones that he did for us already," Carlisle said.

"I'm on it. I'll have him send them to a Fed Ex box in Lebanon," Jasper said.

"The rest of you. We have the rest of today and tomorrow to pack this house. If we absolutely need it, we can run into Thursday. I would like to be on the road by Thursday afternoon at the latest. I want to be in Forks by Friday night just in case they have the party Friday night. I know that the Spartans should have a football game and that Halloween is on Saturday so the party should be Saturday night, but I'd hate to bet Charlie's life on a couple of should's. So, let's get this place packed up. Does anybody have anything else?" We all shook our heads, then Carlisle got up from the table.

We all got up after him. Everyone in the room, even Rosalie, came up to me and hugged me. They all assured me that Charlie would be fine. Edward went into the attic and started handing down our boxes. He called out to Emmett that we would need some new boxes this trip, and Emmett acknowledged him. I wasn't sure what he was talking about. The boxes that he was handing down looked fine to me. I asked Alice about it, and she said that we always got boxes the move before we needed them, just in case we had to move in a hurry, like this time. We couldn't wait for Emmett to get back with the U-haul before we started packing. He would also bring packing tape and new pens when he came back. We already had those things now because he bought them last time. I couldn't believe how organized the Cullens were, but I guessed that when you moved as often as they did, you got good at it. As Edward handed me the boxes, I piled them up according to size and function. The others came and got them and put them into the different rooms to be packed. When Edward had emptied the attic of all of the boxes, he climbed down.

Giving me a quick kiss, he took my hand and led me to our room. We packed a couple of suitcases with the clothes that we would need until we reached Lebanon. Then we started packing the boxes. We emptied our closet, packing our clothes and his mother's jewelry box. We packed up his computer and my laptop. I left the toiletries to be packed when we left for Forks. We would leave the furniture with the exception of his computer desk and his piano. We would buy a bed when we got there. He had never had a need for a bed at any of the houses, so his was the only bedroom without one. We could make do until we bought one.

When we were finished with our room, we went downstairs and started with Emmett's video games and systems. We packed up the X-box 360, the Playstation 3, the GameCube, and the Wii. We packed all of the controllers, guns, floorpads, guitars, and anything else that went with the gaming systems. We packed the DVD player and the DVD's, the blueray player and all of the bluerays. So many of them were out of publication now, that we couldn't maintain a collection at all of the houses.

Then we went into the garage to pack all of Rosalie's tools. They were scattered here and there, but with care, we managed to find all of them and get them into their proper containers. Then we packed all of the containers. Now, we had all of Rose's play things packed.

When we had packed all of Emmett's play things, well all of his play things that were in the living room, we went to see if we could help Alice. She was still working on her closet. She handed us the items, and we placed them in the hanging boxes. When she was finished with the hanging items, we helped her pack her shoes. They had to be individually wrapped so that they wouldn't get damaged by rubbing up against one another during the move. Then we proceeded to her hand bags and purses. After that, I got to assist her with her dresser. I sent Edward to help Jasper pack up all of his Civil War memorabilia, books, and research. Alice and I packed her lingerie, and hers and Jasper's sex toys. I was quite embarrassed by them, especially when Alice explained what each one did. I know that vampires can't blush. I did. She only laughed at me and said that Edward and I made a very good couple. We were both prudes. I could only thank her for the complement. Edward also yelled out his thanks from Jasper's study. That set us both to laughing. Alice yelled back that one day she was going to corrupt me, then what would he do? He yelled back that he would total her nice, yellow Porsche. Game on. I sat back and listened to the two of them spar back and forth for the better part of a half hour. I loved to see the interaction between Edward and Alice. I knew that before I came into his life, Alice had been his best friend, and in many ways, she still was. He was never able to totally relax with any of the others, even Carlisle, the way that he could around Alice.

We finished packing Alice's and Jasper's room and Jasper's study. Then Alice went to the laundry room to pack it, and Edward and I went to help Esme and Carlisle. Well, Edward went to help Carlisle pack his office, and I went to help Esme pack their room. We packed her closet and drawers. Luckily, she didn't have a stash of sex toys for us to pack, or if she did, she quietly packed them before I arrived to help her. It didn't take any time for the two of us to finish their room.

Since Carlisle and Edward had gone to the hospital to pack his office there, we, Esme, Alice, Jasper, and I started packing the books in his home office. There were hundreds, most of them large. We packed them in boxes that movers wouldn't be able to move even if they ganged up on them. By the time that Carlisle and Edward got back, we had his office about halfway done. They joined us, and we finished the rest in about fifteen minutes.

I went into the kitchen and packed the unopened staples that we'd bought to fool the foster care people. I figured that we didn't need it here to attract bugs, and it would be nice to not have to buy it again in Lebanon.

We had basically finished all of the packing besides Emmett's and Rosalie's room. They hadn't gotten any clothes together for the next few days, so we couldn't very well pack their room without them here. So, we waited. Carlisle had sent them at least two hours away to get the truck, and if they didn't have one available, they would have to travel even farther to find one. Edward and Jasper decided to start filling up the cars with gas. They would go to different gas stations with each of the cars so as not to alert anyone that we were filling up all of the tanks.

Then Edward went to the bank and cashed out our checking account. He transferred the other three checking accounts into an international account which he had created this afternoon right before he left. When he got back, he divided the money up between all of us, telling me that from this moment on, we'd be paying cash for everything. Since we were leaving because of a screw-up, we didn't want to be traceable. We would not use credit cards for the next several years. Everything would be handled in cash transactions, from gas to electric bills. We wouldn't even have a checking account. If we needed a check for something, we would use a cashier's check. He was the only one who would handle paying the bills.

After being gone for five hours, Emmett and Rose finally made it back with a U-Haul truck. The guys started loading it, and the girls went with Rose to start packing her room. We waited until she had packed her and Emmett enough clothes to get through the weekend, then we all tackled the closet. She had almost as many clothes as Alice did. After the clothes, we individually wrapped the shoes, then the handbags and purses, then Emmett's clothes, then the drawers. Alice and Rosalie took care of the sex toys, leaving Esme and me to the other, nicer drawers.

After all of their things were packed, we began a chain gang line to pass boxes down to the boys. We started on the upper floor, clearing one room at a time. By the time that Esme and Carlisle's room was clear, the sun was up and Rose, Emmett, and Jasper had to get ready for school. They couldn't skip at the risk of alerting everyone that something was up. The plan was that we would leave after school let out today. Carlisle wrote a note for them to miss Thursday and Friday, that our Aunt who had the heart attack had passed away, and the family was going back to Alaska for the funeral.

We continued to pack the truck, and by the time that the others were home from school, it was finished. We decided to all go hunt before we left. It was a quick hunt, just finding the first thing that we came across and feeding. We all met back at the house. We quickly packed our toiletries and loaded the cars. We were going to make the trip in the Cadillac and the Volvo. Alice and Jasper chose to ride with Edward and me, leaving Emmett and Rose to ride with Carlisle and Esme.

By five o'clock Wednesday afternoon, we were on our way back to Forks, the home that I'd tried to leave forever. Now, though, I was on my way back there for the second time. This time, however, it was a matter of life and death.


	18. Chapter 18

**Disclaimer: Stephenie Meyer owns it all.**

**Chapter 18 - Charlie**

We arrived in Forks at midnight on Thursday night. We pulled into our long driveway without anyone seeing us. We opened the house, airing it out. It wasn't really bad, having only been closed for the past four months. Immediately, I wanted to go to the school and see when the party was scheduled. Edward and I made our way through the woods to Forks High. We walked around until we found a flyer on a window that said that the party was indeed on Saturday night. We now knew the approximate time frame of the shooting.

We went back to the house to tell the others. We realized that we couldn't exactly camp out at the gas station all night Saturday night. That would draw too much attention to us. We couldn't really let anybody know that we were back in town. Luckily, there was some tree cover across the street from the gas station which would give us a good view of the front of the store part. We would be able to see when the robber pulled out his gun. Hopefully, he would do so before Charlie arrived. If the event went down that way, and Charlie had to drive to the gas station, we could deal with the situation before Charlie actually arrived. However, if Charlie were there already when the robbery took place, we would have to find a way to interrupt it without Charlie finding out what we'd done. That would infinitesimally complicate things.

We looked to Alice to see if she'd had any updates on her vision. She just shook her head. While she had tried to look to see again, her vision had completely disappeared. She was totally frustrated. She felt as if she had let us down. We didn't know if the future had changed because we had returned to town or if there was something else that was affecting the vision. We were flying blind.

Friday night the football game went to the Spartans, and the teenagers went to one of the local houses for the after game party. Edward and I followed Charlie, keeping in the woods for the most part, only leaving them when absolutely necessary. The others were positioned at certain spots along his suspected routes. Charlie patrolled the streets until all of the kids got home around two am. Then he went home. He slept in until about ten am, then he got up and went back in to the station. He worked in the office until about five pm, then he went and got into his cruiser. Edward and I followed him again. He started patrolling the streets. After about thirty minutes, he pulled over a car that was weaving in and out of his lanes. We waited in the edge of the woods and were surprised to find out that it was Jacob. I had never known Jake to drink to excess, not this early in the evening, and especially not when he was driving. Charlie helped Jake to his car, the front seat, not the back. Then he got into Jake's car and pulled it across the street and parked it. We finally understood why Alice could no longer see the robbery or the shooting.

Charlie drove off with Jake in the front seat. He went back towards his house. On the way, he pulled into the gas station to fill up the cruiser with gas. Edward and I stood in the woods across the street from the gas station along with Jasper and Carlisle. When Charlie went inside to pay, Edward started moving across the road in the shadows with Jasper at his heels. All of a sudden, a shot rang out. I screamed, and a young man ran out of the gas station. Jasper dove at him, bringing him down, knocking the gun out of his hand and the breath out of his lungs. Jasper got up and ran back into the shadows just as Charlie ran out of the gas station, a darkened area appearing on the upper left hand side of his shirt, his gun in his hand. He ran up to the robber on the ground, looking around to see how he got there, and not seeing anything, pulled out his handcuffs and put them on him. He called out in his radio to report the robbery and shooting and to report that he had one in custody. He was out of breath, and he was starting to lean towards the pavement.

Edward ran to him and picked him up. He and Jasper ran back across the road. We all ran to the house. On the way, I picked up his hand in mine. I said, "Don't you die, Charlie. You have to live."

He looked up at me, and he got a glazed look in his eyes. "Bella?" he said. "Bella, honey, is that you?"

"Yes, Dad. It's me. You have to fight. You have to live. Don't you die. We're going to take care of you, okay. I love you, Dad."

"I love you, too, honey. I've missed you. Is this what heaven looks like?"

"No, Dad. This isn't heaven. You're still alive. You have to fight to stay alive. You have to live for Sue. You have to live for Jacob. You're still needed here."

We finally made it back to the house. Edward immediately took him to Carlisle's office. Carlisle ripped his shirt off of him. He inspected the wound. Then he told Edward to get the X-ray machine. Edward moved into the adjoining room and brought in the portable X-ray machine. They positioned the film under Charlie and took a PA film of the chest. Edward immediately went to develop it. In the meanwhile, Carlisle began his exam. He called out to Edward that Charlie had a left sided pneumothorax, then he looked at me and said that he had air in his chest which was pressing on his lungs and not letting them expand all of the way. He rolled Charlie onto his side and examined his back. There was another wound on the back. It was larger than the one on the front. He called out to Edward to hurry up with the pneumo kit. He then laid Charlie back down. He went to a cabinet and got some different types of dressings. He dressed both of the wounds, then when Edward came back into the room with the X-rays and the pneumo kit, he looked at the x-ray with Edward. They agreed that the bullet missed the major structures of the mediastinum. I looked at him like he was talking Greek. Edward smiled and said that meant the middle of the chest. They then put in the chest tube which Edward explained would drain all of the blood from the chest cavity. It would also pull out all of the extra air that had escaped from the lungs and was pushing on the lungs preventing them from expanding all of the way. That was what was causing Charlie's shortness of breath. I had never heard Charlie scream so loudly. When it was over, though, he was breathing much better.

When Carlisle and Edward were sure that Charlie was stable, they left me with him for a little while. He was resting quietly. I laid my head on the bed next to him. I held his hand in mine. After a little while, I heard his heart beat begin to get a little more rapid. I picked up my head and looked at him. His eyes were open, and he was looking at me. "I can't believe my eyes. Is it really you, Bella?"

"Yes, Dad. It's really me."

"But I buried you. You had an accident and your car burned. You were in it. How are you here?"

"It wasn't me in the car, Dad."

"But why? Why would you want me to think that you're dead? And whose body was in your car, Bella? I don't understand."

Edward walked in right then. He took my hand into his own. I looked at him, and he nodded. "We talked about it, and he has to know."

"Everyone, please come in with me," I said. "I think that we need to do this as a family."

The others came in, one by one. Everybody was silent and respectful of Charlie. I propped him up in the bed to make him more comfortable while he looked at everybody. "What is going on? What are you going to tell me? The reason why my daughter that I buried is sitting right here beside me? Does Jacob know that you're alive?"

"Dad, I don't know where to start. I'm not who I used to be. I've been changed. I'm like the Cullens now."

"What exactly does that mean, like the Cullens?"

"Dad, I'm not human anymore. I've been changed. My old body died, and I'm in a new body. I'm immortal now. We're not supposed to let anyone know what we are. It could put you into danger for you to know what we are. There are those like us who might want you dead if they knew that you know what we are."

"You mean that the Cullens aren't human?"

"No, we aren't Charlie," Carlisle came up on Charlie's other side. "I haven't been human since the sixteenth century when I was changed."

"What are you, then?" Charlie asked.

"We are vampires," Carlisle said.

"Bella, is he serious? You are a vampire? I thought that vampires were just story creatures. And don't vampires drink blood?" Charlie asked.

"Yes, Dad. What Carlisle said is true. I've been changed into a vampire. Edward is a vampire. So are Esme, Alice, Jasper, Emmett, and Rosalie. We don't drink human blood. We drink animal blood. We faked my death because I thought that it would be easier for you to think that I was dead than to think that I'd run away with Edward and didn't want to see you again. You weren't supposed to ever see me again."

"Why not?"

"Because you could get killed for knowing about us."

"Then why are you back?"

"Because Alice had a vision that you would be killed tonight. I couldn't let that happen. I had to stop it."

"What do you mean, 'had a vision?'"

"Alice can see the future. When she had the vision that you would be killed at the high school, we knew that we would have to come back to save you. We had hoped to prevent your being shot all together."

"Does Sue know that I've been shot? Won't she be looking for me at the hospital?"

"Oh no! We haven't called Sue. We figured out why your couldn't finish your vision, Alice. He picked up Jake on the way to the gas station tonight. Someone needs to go get Jake and go get Sue."

"I'll go. Keys," Emmett said. Edward threw him the keys to the Volvo, and he turned around and left.

"What will she think? We've got to keep all of this a secret from her!" Charlie cried out.

"Charlie, Dad, Sue already knows. She has known since the Cullens moved here the first time. She knew that I was changed and that I wasn't dead. She knew that the funeral was a fake the whole time. So did Jake and Billy."

"No! No way! You're lying. There is no way that they knew. They would have told me. They wouldn't have let me go on believing that you were dead when they knew how much I was hurting, how much I missed you, how devastated I was by losing you. They said that they were there for me, for anything that I needed. They wouldn't have kept that from me." Tears were rolling down his cheeks. He was openly sobbing.

I went to him and took him into my arms. It was the first time that I had really touched him. I could tell that he wanted to pull away from my hardened, cold body, so I let him go and sat back. "I'm sorry, Dad. I know that my body feels different. I know that it is hard and cold to you."

"You're wrong, Bella. They didn't know. I'll prove it to you when they get here."

"I'm sorry, Dad. I know that they knew. I talked to Jacob before the funeral. I was there, in the back of the church, in disguise. I talked to Seth and Quill and Embry. I watched you the entire time. I saw Sue with you. Why didn't you ever tell me that you and Sue were dating?"

"You were busy with your own life. You were in medical school. You didn't need to hear about your ole' Dad's love life." I heard the Volvo turn into the driveway. Emmett pulled up to the front of the house. The door to the car opened and then slammed shut. Then the front door opened and I heard steps on the stairs.

"Charlie, where are you?" Sue called out. Edward stuck his head out of the door and called out to her that we were in here. She ran into the room. "Charlie, are you all right?"

"Yes, merely a flesh wound," he answered in his best Monty Python imitation. I groaned. His best imitation was no where near good.

Sue looked at me and asked me, "What exactly happened to him, Bella? Why are you back?" just as Jacob walked into the door.

"Alice had a vision that he got shot and killed tonight by an armed robber at the gas station. We couldn't let that happen. We had to stop it," I replied.

"Why couldn't you just call Jake and the others?" she asked.

"Well, from the look of things tonight, it doesn't look like Jake is in any condition to have prevented anything from happening. I guess I could have called Seth, but since Billy's funeral, Sam and the others made it pretty plain that he and the rest of the packs don't want anything else to do with me. I couldn't trust them to protect Charlie. I only trust my family at this point. You should be thanking us, Sue. If we hadn't come back, he would be dead."

"What do you mean, since Billy's funeral? Were you here for Billy's funeral?" Charlie asked.

"Yes, Dad. I came back for Billy's funeral. I stayed with Jake. I was his 'relative, Stephanie Summers.' Sue knew that I was here. I had a couple of run ins with the guys at the reservation. They weren't happy with me being back. The guys at the reservation are enemies with the vampires, so while they accepted me as Jake's wife, when I was changed, they became my enemy. Sue is an elder at the reservation. She has known about the Cullens as long as I have known about them."

"How long have you known about them, Bella? Did you know about Edward in high school?"

"Yes, Dad. I figured it out pretty soon. Edward never lied to me about it. The Cullens were pretty straight forward with me once I figured it out. I wanted Edward to change me while we were still in high school, but he wouldn't do it. He wanted me to continue with my life. Then he left and I didn't think that I'd ever see him again."

"So he changed you this time?"

"No, he tried to prevent me from being changed again. We'd talked about it, and I had him convinced to change me over Christmas break, but another vampire, a human feeder, changed me. The Cullens weren't able to kill her before she got to me. She was trying to get revenge because they killed her lover before, when I went to Phoenix. He was after me then, but the Cullens killed him."

"So, Sue, you knew that Bella was still alive? You've known all along? You let me believe that my only daughter was dead. You've let me grieve since August. You've let me visit her grave, and yet you knew that she was alive. Not only alive, but has been here, was here for Billy's funeral?" Charlie asked in a tight voice, turning to look at Sue with a glare that bordered between fury and hatred in his eyes.

"You've got to understand, Charlie. Her story wasn't mine to tell. Yes, I knew. I found out when she was changed. I figured that they would fake her death. It was hard for me to watch you suffer so badly. I wanted to kill her for doing that to you, but it was her choice," Sue said.

"Jacob, you knew, too? You sat there at her funeral and acted like a grieving husband, and you knew that she was alive. You let me grieve. You pretended that she was dead for all of this time. She was here for Billy's funeral, and you didn't let me know?"

"Yes, Charlie. I knew. I was saying good-bye to her. I didn't expect to ever see her again. I knew that we would never be together again. Then when she called me needing some help, I got her number. I called her when Billy died, and she decided to come back for the funeral. She wasn't exactly treated very well, and she left right after the funeral was over," Jake said.

"I don't want to see either of you again. Sue, get your things out of my house. The fact that the two of you knew that my daughter was alive, and you kept it from me this whole time....I don't trust you. You knew how badly I was hurting. My only daughter...My Bella...alive, all of this time. I never want to see you again. Get out," Charlie said.

"Charlie, you don't know what you are saying," Sue began.

"GET OUT!" Charlie shouted. Sue jumped and tried to take Charlie's hand. He pulled it back from her. He turned his face from her and whispered, "Leave me."

She looked at me, fury on her face, then she walked out of the room. Jake followed her. I took Charlie's hand, and he looked at me. "Dad, it isn't their fault. If you're going to blame anyone, blame me. I'm the one who chose to fake my death. I thought that it would be easier on you to think that I was dead than to never see me again. They were just following my wishes."

"My Bella. I never want to lose you again. I have you again, and I don't want to lose you ever. Let me come with you. I promise that I won't interfere with you or your family."

I looked at Edward who was looking at Alice and Carlisle. Carlisle came forward again and walked to Charlie. "Charlie, do you know what you are asking? You would be forced to move every few years, sometimes at the drop of a hat. You would potentially be putting your life on the line. If others of our kind find out that you know about our secret, you may be killed or forced to be changed. You"

"I would be with Bella until the day that I died. That is what I want to do. I never want to lose her again. I'm willing to do whatever is necessary. I'll move however often I need to. Nothing is keeping me here. I have no family left; Bella is my last family."

"Then we'd be happy to have you come with us. We'll need for you to recover some before you can be moved. We're on our way to New Hampshire. Jasper can ride with us back to Wisconsin and Charlie can ride with you, Edward. Charlie, what will you want to do with your house? You can't let anyone know where you are."

"I don't really care. I guess that I can sell it. I don't know what to do about the furniture."

"We will have someone pack up the furniture. If you want, you can sell the house through our attorney. He handles all of our business interests," Carlisle said.

"That sounds good to me."

"How much do you want for the house?" Carlisle asked.

"I really don't care. It doesn't matter that much to me. All that I care about is having Bella back."

"Okay. Jasper, you know what to do. Arrange for movers to pack his belongings. Move them to Toledo then have another couple of U-Hauls ready to transfer everything to. Arrange for the sale of the house through J. Get the paperwork for medical retirement for Charlie. Now go hunt. Even I can feel your unease. Go." Jasper looked at me, and I nodded.

"Dad, I'm going to go out with Jasper for a little while. I'll be back really soon, okay," I said to him. I gave Edward a kiss and got up when Jasper walked by me. I followed him out the back door. We walked to the river in the backyard and jumped it easily. Then we started running into the woods. It didn't take long to locate some deer in the forest. I drained two, and Jasper got three. Feeling full, we headed back to the house. When we got back, I noticed that I'd gotten a little blood on my shirt. I needed to get another shirt out of the suitcase which was still in the Volvo. Emmett still had the keys. I asked Jasper to go get them for me, and he did. He had a little laugh that I still couldn't eat without getting it all over me. For that, I made him go get the luggage. I quickly took our suitcase to my room and quickly changed my shirt. Then I went back into Carlisle's office to see my dad again. He was still sleeping.

"So we're going to do this?" I asked Edward who was still in the room with him.

"Yes, love. We are going to take him with us. If any of us had the option of having a parent who wanted to be with us, we'd jump at that chance. We can't deny you that chance."

"Where will he live?"

"We'll buy him a house not far from ours. That way he can have some privacy and still visit whenever he wants to. Until we can get him a house, he'll stay with us."

"What does Rose think about that?"

"She's almost okay with the idea. She isn't against it; she just isn't for it. Nobody is against it." He got up and checked on the drain and the vacuum. It had slowed down a lot. There had not been much blood loss in the past hour. He then checked the bandages. They were secure and clean. It was three o'clock in the morning.

I could hear Jasper on the phone with Jenks. He was arranging for the packing up and selling of my dad's home. I had to hand it to him. He had a way of talking to Jenks that demanded respect.

Alice was in their room, drawing. I could hear her talking to the designs, telling them how she wanted them to develop. I thought that she was losing it the first time that I heard her designing this way, but when I saw her designs, I changed my mind. Whatever it took for her to do what she did was okay with me if she came up with clothing as wonderful as those that I'd seen.

Carlisle and Esme were in their room, talking about what needed to be done with the house in Lebanon. Esme needed to go ahead and open the house, get it aired out, and start getting things ready for us to move into it. It had been a very long time since we'd been to New Hampshire, so the house undoubtedly would need some work to be done on it. She would also need to look for a house for Charlie. Carlisle made reservations for her online. She would leave at six am. Emmett and Rose took her to the airport to make her flight.

Charlie woke up about an hour later. It was still dark outside. He looked over at us and smiled. "I thought that it was a dream," he said, reaching for my hand which he squeezed. "You need to go and get some sleep, Bella. You don't need to sit up all night with me."

"I don't sleep anymore, Dad," I said, leaning in to give him a kiss on the cheek. "How are you feeling?"

"What do you mean, you don't sleep anymore? Why not?"

"We don't sleep, Dad. Ever. We stay awake twenty-four/seven. We never even get tired. We never dream. It is the one thing that I miss about being human."

"So, Edward, how old are you?"

"I'm seventeen," he replied, as he wrapped his arms around my waist again.

"You were seventeen when you started dating my daughter," Charlie said.

"And I'll be seventeen for the rest of eternity. I was seventeen when Carlisle changed me in 1918. I was dying of the Spanish Flu. My mother and father had already passed away from the flu, and I was alone in the world. Carlisle was my doctor, and I didn't have long left to live. He had been alone since the sixteenth century, and he decided that he wanted a companion, a friend, so he changed me. We were alone for around ten years or so until Carlisle found Esme who was also dying. He loved her, and he changed her. Then Rosalie joined us, then Emmett. Alice and Jasper found us several decades later. We were a family, content to be so, until we came to Forks, and Bella came into my life. She changed me. I tried to keep her from the danger that we brought upon her, but for some reason, the danger seemed to follow her. I guess it was fate that she would eventually join our family to complete it."

"So, what are your intentions with my daughter?"

"Um," Edward started, looking at me.

"Dad, Edward and I are married. We got married right after I got changed."

"Oh, I guess that I wasn't invited to give you away, huh," Charlie said.

"Well, you kind of thought that I was dead," I told him, picking up his hand. "I'm sorry, Dad. We can get married again and let you give me away if you'd like."

"I'd kind of like that, I think. I know that I gave you away with Jacob, but if you're going to stay married to Edward for all of eternity, then I think that I'd like for you to have a wedding that I gave you away for. Would you do that for your Dad?"

I looked at Edward, and he nodded. "I'd do anything for you, Bella. You know that. I've always wanted to marry you. I'd marry you a hundred times."

"Yes, Dad. We'll get married again so that you can give me away. I'd love that."

"YES! A wedding! I can't wait! Where are you two going to have the wedding?" Alice asked as she rushed into the room.

"How did you find out, Alice?" Charlie asked.

"I heard you talking about it, of course," Alice said. "Now, do you want to get.."

"Wait a minute! What do you mean that you heard us talking about it? Were you eavesdropping outside of the room?" Charlie asked.

"No, silly. I was in my room, drawing," Alice said.

"Dad, vampires have amazing hearing. I can hear the cars passing by on the road. I can hear Jasper talking on the phone downstairs. We really have no privacy because we can hear each other for about 150 yards on a clear day, not to mention that Edward can read everyone's minds and Alice can see all of our futures. We have just gotten used to hearing each other when we are in the same house."

"So you mean that you can hear everything that goes on in the house?" Charlie asked.

"Yes sir. Everything," I answered.

"Who else is together? I know that Carlisle and Esme are married, but who else is together?" Charlie asked.

"It is just like it looks, Dad. Alice and Jasper are married, and Rose and Emmett are married."

"And you hear everything?"

"Yes, Dad. We can hear everyone having sex. We just try not to pay attention, to tune it out. Most of the time, when we want private time, we turn on our music, and everyone knows not to interrupt each other, well, except for Emmett. He hasn't learned that rule, yet. He has no couth."

Carlisle came into the room at that point. He checked Charlie's wounds and his drains. He asked him if he thought that he felt like eating. Charlie said that he thought that he would be able to. Carlisle called Emmett and told him to pick up some groceries for Charlie on his way back. Then he sat down at the side of the bed.

"I heard the conversation about Edward and Bella getting re-married. I think that it is a great idea. However, I think that we need to do it in Alaska. There are some rules in New Hampshire concerning marriage of juveniles that we don't want to have to deal with. We can all take a side trip to Alaska and spend a week at our house there. They don't require blood work in Alaska, and underaged marriages only require parental signatures."

"That sounds good to me," I said, looking at Edward. He nodded and kissed me on the cheek. I turned into him and kissed him on the lips. For a moment, I forgot that there were others in the room, and I deepened the kiss, pulling him in closer and running my fingers through his hair. Alice cleared her throat, and I was brought back to reality. I broke the kiss but not without giving him several smaller kisses as I pulled away from him.

"I see. I guess that you two have always belonged together, haven't you?" Charlie asked me. I nodded and tucked my face into Edward's shoulder. "How does it work when you go to a new town? I mean, when you came here to Forks, all of you started in high school. Do you always do that?"

"Yes. We find that we can stay in a place longer if the kids start out in high school. Then they can go to college, and sometimes even on to graduate school," Carlisle said.

"And they pretend to be dating each other?" Charlie asked.

"Yes, that has worked in the past, until the last place that we went to, that is. When we added Bella into the equation, however, it seemed to change things some way. I guess that when Edward was single, the other kids could focus their attention on him. When he was taken, all of the attention was dispersed between all six of them, and the jealousy was intense. We had problems," Carlisle said.

Charlie yawned, and Carlisle said, "Why don't the two of you go out for a little while. I'll watch Charlie for a bit."

Edward and I got up. He took my hand and led me down the stairs and out the door. We ran through the backyard and jumped the river. We ran hand in hand through the forest until we were miles from the house. When we stopped, I turned and fell into Edward's arms, wrapping my arms around him and kissing him all over his face. He returned my kisses while his hands grabbed my shirt, interrupting our kisses to pull it over my head. He lowered his head to nuzzle it between my breasts. Then he reached behind my back and removed my bra. He pulled it away from my body and let it fall to the ground. I reached for his shirt and pulled it over his head. We made quick work of the rest of our clothes, needing to see the rest of each other as soon as possible. As I gazed on my lover, the only man in the world who could complete my soul, I leaned back into him, pressing my body into his, and he pressed back into mine. I could feel every inch of him pressed into me. He lifted me, and I wrapped my legs around his waist, lowering myself onto him, feeling him enter me, every moment sliding just a little farther inside me until he was buried so deeply that we were one. I lifted myself back off, slowly, so that I could feel his every cell come in contact with mine. We continued to slide together with one another as we both felt our orgasms build. I felt my stomach starting to contract, then it started to move down into my pelvis, grabbing hold of him, pulling him back into me, squeezing him, holding onto him for all that I was worth. I arched my back as I came, trying to press myself further onto him, forcing him into me as far as was physically possible. I felt him release into me, sending me over the edge again. I yelled out his name, and pulled myself up to rest my head on his shoulder. We were both breathing rapidly.

He leaned against a tree, holding the two of us up while we cooled down. I kissed his face down onto his chest. I couldn't seem to get enough of him. He lowered me onto the ground so that he could caress my body as well. Our hands touched each other, never leaving our lover's body. We kissed each other, kissed each other's body, and held each other close. In no time, we were together again, connected as only lovers are connected, pleasuring each other. We came together again, him pressed into me as if he would lose me if we were to part. We stayed that way for an hour, holding onto each other. Then, we parted, knowing that we needed to get back to the house and Charlie. We quietly got dressed, and held hands as we ran back through the forest to our old home.

After returning to the house, we went straight to our room and took a quick shower. Then we returned to Charlie's room. His IV was out, and he was sitting up eating a McDonald's breakfast. I took one look at him and ran to his side. I gave him a hug and said, "Oh, Dad, I've missed you so much! I don't know how I thought that I could live without you!"

I spent the rest of the next week with him talking about everything. Sue tried several times to come see him, but he insisted that he didn't want to see her. He didn't forgive her or Jake for keeping my existence from him. He said that he never wanted to see them again. Jenks made quick work of packing up his house. Within three days of his being shot, movers were at the house packing his belongings. The for sale sign went up in the yard two days later. His signed resignation was delivered to the Sheriff's office by paid currier the Monday after he was shot.

Carlisle was able to pull out the chest tube that was keeping Charlie's lung inflated and pulling out the blood in his chest by Wednesday, and we were able to move him by Friday. Carlisle had called Esme and had her fly into Anchorage and meet us Sunday. We had to take into account that we had to stop to allow Charlie to eat and have restroom breaks. It took us nearly thirty-eight hours to make what was usually a thirty-two hour trip.

When we arrived at our Anchorage home, we tucked Charlie into our bedroom and went outside to hunt. When we got back, we sat down with Alice and went over her wedding plans. She had picked out my dress, and I totally loved it. It fit my personality perfectly. I truly didn't think that Alice had it in her. She had also ordered bridesmaid dresses for her, Rosalie, and Esme and tuxes for Edward, Charlie, Carlisle, Emmett, and Jasper. The dresses were gorgeous and the tuxes matched perfectly. She had picked out nice flowers to compliment my dress which were still available in Alaska in November. She had arranged for a minister to perform the ceremony. She had even ordered a one layered wedding cake, for Charlie. All in all, she had done a spectacular job. The only thing left for Edward an me to do was go to the County Clerk's office with Carlisle and Esme and fill out the paperwork. Alice was, once again, amazing.

Sunday came, and with it, so did Esme. We were all glad to see her again. She told us that she had the house aired out, and she had bought Edward and me a bed. We were grateful that we wouldn't have that hanging over our heads when we got to Lebanon. After we were a whole family again, Carlisle called a family meeting. We gathered around the dining room table. We even pulled up another chair for Charlie. "I called this meeting to establish what we are going to do when we get to Lebanon. We are going to have to register the six of you in school. I need to know going in how you want to proceed with this. I don't want a repeat of Black River Falls. I assume that you have all given this some thought."

"I don't know what went wrong in Black River Falls. We've always been able to deal with the jealousy in the past. It has always been there in the beginning of whatever school we've been attending, and not just directed at Edward. It has been directed at all of us, but we've all been able to handle it better. Something just snapped at Black River Falls, and we all had a hard time of controlling what should have been a normal start to a new school. I don't know. I think that we were all being a little over protective of Bella, maybe. We were all trying to be sure that her blood-lust didn't all of a sudden pop up, and we didn't want to let anyone get close to her, so we were trying to shut her down, which led to Edward's jealousy spiking even higher than it would have under natural circumstances. I mean, he handled Mike and Tyler and the others at Forks okay. No broken bones, no fights, and she was his singer. So I think that our added pressure to keep her isolated just built on his jealousies, and his jealousies just rebounded to ours," Alice said.

"I think that I agree with that. I felt our normal jealousies, but then when we were around Bella, I felt Edward's just magnified. When we weren't around him, he seemed to be able to handle himself okay, but Alice was there the whole time. The three of them were in all of their classes together. I know that we felt that it was important to have both of them with Bella because she is still a newborn, but I don't think that it helped the situation with Edward's jealousies, or Bella's either. I think that she had a really hard time, knowing that Edward was hers, and the girls were so forward with him. Nothing like what happened with Chelsea would have ever happened back at Forks High. The teenagers are getting much more emboldened this decade. I completely sympathize with Bella for what she had to endure and witness when it came to the way that Chelsea acted towards Edward, and with her being a newborn, handling newborn emotions, Carlisle, we're very lucky that we weren't running from something much worse than what we're leaving for," Jasper said.

"If I may interrupt," Charlie asked.

"Oh course, Charlie," Carlisle said.

"What does it mean, 'newborn?' I've heard both of you say that Bella is a 'newborn.' Exactly what do you mean by that?" Charlie asked.

"Charlie, when a human is changed into a vampire, they go through a period which we call the 'newborn' period. During that time, the vampire is extremely strong and powerful. Bella is the strongest one of us at this point, yes, even stronger than Emmett, a fact that he forgets from time to time, much to our amusement. She is faster than she will be, and her emotions are very volatile. She should also be dealing with a great deal of bloodlust. Every human that she smells should call to her senses to make her want to feed. We should be having to pull her off of you. She shouldn't be able to come within one hundred feet of you without feeling the insatiable need to feed off of you. Bella, for some reason, has never had bloodlust. We've never run into a newborn who hasn't had bloodlust before Bella. In fact, bloodlust usually lasts anywhere from one to ten years. In some, it really never goes away," Carlisle said.

"Like in me, Charlie. I still have the bloodlust. I must feed regularly, and then my throat still burns when I am around humans. If I smell actual blood, I almost always go into a feeding frenzy, and my brothers and sisters have to control me," Jasper said, shamefaced.

"Jazz, you are doing so much better. Don't put yourself down," Alice said.

"But it is true, and if Charlie is going to be around us, he needs to know, Alice. I'm still not under good control, not like the others in the family. Bella's control is so much better than mine is already. I'm sort of envious of her for that. But, honestly, since she came into the family, my control is improving. However, bottom line, Charlie, if you see them coming between you and me, run," Jasper said.

"Understood," Charlie said, not able to hide a slight shiver.

"Back to our discussion, Emmett, Rosalie, do you have anything to add," Carlisle asked.

"Not really. I am going to protect Bella, especially if Edward isn't around. She is my new little sister," Emmett said.

"You see, I think that is the problem. First, I don't need protecting. Like Carlisle said, I am the strongest. If you need reminding, I can arm wrestle you anytime, anyplace, Emmett. I can handle any boy making a pass at me. I did it my senior year when you were all gone. I did it for four years of college, when you were all gone, and I was a human. I have managed to make it this far. I don't think that a sophomore in high school is going to do me any harm. They may think things about me, but that is what teenaged boys do; they dream, and then they whack off in the showers. No harm, no foul. If I do need help, Edward will be there. I don't need the whole family to blanket me with protection. I felt sort of smothered. You all proved that you can be at my side within seconds if I need you. My blood lust is under control. The only thing that you have to worry about is my temper, and I think that it is improving," I said.

"So, how do you want to proceed in Lebanon? Do you want to go in as dating singles, or do you want to go in as married couples?" Carlisle asked.

"Why don't we try it as singles dating," Edward said. "It would probably go over better than sophomores and juniors who are already married. If it gets too bad, we can always pop out the marriage licenses and go married."

"Anyone not agree?" Carlisle asked. Everyone was silent. "Okay, that is how Esme and I will register you. Please, let's make this one work. Remember, if you don't want people to oogle at you, you could try dressing down, Alice. Bella doesn't have to dress to the hilt every day."

Monday came, and Carlisle, Esme, Edward, and I went to the Anchorage County Clerk's Office. Edward filled out the application, and Carlisle and Esme filled out their portions. We went to the registrar, and Edward paid the twenty-five dollar fee. They said that they needed to see our ID's. Since we both had Wisconsin driver's licenses, they wanted to see proof of residency. Edward produced our power bill and a water bill addressed to our home outside of Anchorage for the past six months. Then they said that they needed to have our parents present their ID's. There was a small line behind us, and they were growing impatient. We suggested that they go before us, but the clerk said that it was first come, first serve, so we asked Carlisle and Esme to come up. When only one set of parents approached, the woman started to get her panties into a wad. Carlisle presented her with our birth certificates that showed that we were not related, then he presented her with the adoption papers on both of us showing that he and Esme had adopted us. He explained to her that our parents were killed in an automobile accident, and that he and Esme had taken in us and our siblings. She said that she wasn't sure that she could grant us a marriage license because of the fact that legally we were brother and sister at the present time. She went into a back office for a few minutes, then she came back out and asked for the four of us to come back with her.

We followed her through the office door. A man stood and introduced himself as Michael Gooseman, the County Clerk. He said, "Ms. White has told me that the two of you are applying for a marriage license. It is my understanding that you, Edward, and you, Bella, are both sixteen years old. Is that correct?"

"Yes sir," Edward said.

"It is also my understanding that you are now legally brother and sister. Is that correct?" asked Mr. Gooseman.

"Yes sir. That is also correct. We were both adopted by the same couple after our parents were killed in a car accident. We grew up as neighbors, and we were dating before our parents were killed. The Cullens were friends to both of our families, and they didn't want to see the six of us broken up," Edward said.

"The six of you?" Mr. Gooseman asked.

"Yes, we each have another brother and another sister. There are six of us total. Our other siblings are already married to each other," Edward said.

"Wait, you mean that your older siblings are married to each other already?" Mr. Gooseman asked.

"Yes, my brother, Emmett is married to Bella's sister, Rosalie, and Bella's brother, Jasper, is married to my sister, Alice. We had to wait until we turned sixteen," Edward said.

"Why do you want to get married so young? What is the hurry?" asked Mr. Gooseman.

"We are in love with each other and have been since we were five years old. We plan to spend the rest of our lives together. We are tired of having other people trying to break into our relationship. We've had to fight to keep others out, even when they know that we are together. We're ready to be married," I said.

"Let me see your birth certificates," Mr. Gooseman said. We gave them to him, and he looked at them. "Well, it is obvious that the two of you aren't blood related. I don't see any reason why we can't grant you a marriage license. Ms. White, go ahead and complete their paperwork."

"Yes sir. Come back up front with me," Ms. White said. We followed her back to the front of the County Clerk's office. "Okay, Mr. and Mrs. Cullen, please sign here....and here. If you will please have a seat for a few minutes, I will finish with your paperwork." We sat down in the now crowded waiting room amid several angry glares.

Edward took my hand into his, and he kissed me on the cheek. It took about another fifteen minutes, but Ms. White finally called Edward and me back to the front desk. She asked us to sign the new license, and she notarized it. Then she gave us the sheet of paper and told us that it would be in effect in three days. We thanked her and left with Carlisle and Esme.

Once we got to the house, we told everyone that the wedding was on for Friday. Alice and Esme finalized the plans. Thursday, the flowers began to arrive. Alice and Esme went to pick up the dresses, tuxes, and the cake. Then they began placing the flowers into beautiful arrangements around the house. We had experienced a cold snap, and there was a good two feet of snow on the ground. An outside wedding was out of the question.

When Friday morning dawned, Edward went outside to shovel out the driveway so that the preacher could park his car. It didn't take him long as the house is secluded, and he was able to work at vampire speed the entire time. He came in and took his shower. Then, we all started getting dressed for the wedding. The preacher arrived right at 9:30, and we were all ready. He talked to Edward for several minutes about the responsibilities of marriage. I knew that it was supposed to be a private conversation, but his voice really carried, and I couldn't help listening in.

At precisely ten o'clock, the music started to signal that the wedding was starting. Esme, then Rose started down the aisle, followed by my Matron of honor, Alice. When the peals of the Wedding March rang out, Charlie took my arm, and with a proud look on his face, he escorted me down the aisle. He stood with me on his arm until the preacher asked, "Who gives this woman to be married to this man?" to which he proudly replied, "I do." Then he took me and turned me towards him. He looked into my eyes and said, "Bella, I love you more than life. I give you to Edward, to be his wife. I wish for you an eternity of bliss and happiness." Then he kissed me on the cheek. He took my hand, turned towards Edward, and placed my hand in his. Then he said, "Edward, I am giving you my daughter to be your wife. Love her and protect her for the rest of eternity." Then he stepped back and sat down in the lone chair provided for our wedding guests.

The rest of the wedding went off perfectly as planned. We said our "I do's." We said our vows. We kissed, and we were officially married. Edward paid the minister, and we signed the marriage license. He gave us a copy, and he took the original to file with the County Clerk's office. My dad was the happiest man on earth. He came up to Edward and me and gave us huge hugs. He welcomed Edward to the family. Carlisle then came up to Charlie and welcomed him to our family. Everything was wonderful. Everything was falling into place. Now, all we had to do was make it to Lebanon, New Hampshire and start over.


	19. Chapter 19

**Stephenie Meyers owns it all.**

**Chapter 19 – Lebanon High**

We left Anchorage as soon as we finished cleaning up after the wedding and preparing the house for our absence. Edward drove with Charlie riding shotgun. I rode in the back with Jasper and Alice. We drove straight through to Black River Falls, stopping only for Charlie to eat or use the restroom. When we arrived at Black River Falls, we split into all of the other vehicles. It was as before. Carlisle drove the Cadillac with Esme riding shotgun. Emmett drove the U-Haul, towing

his jeep. Rosalie drove her Mercedes. Alice drove her Porsche. Jasper rode his Ducati. Edward drove his Aston Martin, and I drove our Volvo with Charlie riding shotgun. While Dad didn't criticize Edward's driving, he lit into me from the first moment we left our driveway. He told me that I was driving way too fast, and I never even let him see the speedometer. Edward had disengaged it before we left for Alaska, knowing that Charlie would throw a fit.

"Bella, you know better than to drive this fast. What if someone were to pull out in front of you? You'd never be able to stop in time to avoid an accident. How did you get this car to go this fast, anyway?"

"Dad, you forget that Edward can read minds, and Alice can see the future. They are both withing speaking range of this vehicle. If something were to come up, I'd be the third one to know."

"And does that work?"

"Edward said to tell you that we are going faster than you are estimating."

"How fast are we going, exactly?"

"I don't know, Dad. Edward disengaged the speedometer before we left for Alaska. I'm just going with the flow. I trust Edward and Alice to keep us safe." Thirty minutes later, we all slowed down rather quickly.

"What is going on, Bella?" Dad asked.

"Highway patrol up ahead. Speed trap. Edward heard their thoughts ahead of us." We made it through that speed trap and several more just like it.

Dad slept a good bit of the way. We pulled into Toledo, Ohio around six pm Tuesday night. We made quick work of unloading our U-Haul in the deserted parking lot of an abandoned Wal-Mart. Emmett, Jasper, and Edward went to get the new U-Haul trucks and return the old one. Carlisle went to claim Charlie's moving vans. We had them move Charlie's household goods to the same Wal-Mart parking lot. There, we paid the drivers $250 to go and eat supper while we unloaded the trucks. We had Charlie sit in the car with the heat running so that he wouldn't get a chill. He didn't want us girls to unload the trucks, thinking that we would hurt ourselves, until I reminded him that I was still the strongest of all of us for the time being. Carlisle, Esme, Rosalie, Alice, and I unloaded both of the moving vans within an hour. We only had one incident during the time that the guys were gone. A group of thugs, gang members I guess you could call them, decided to make themselves known. They came up while we were still unloading the trucks. One of them decided that they were going to grab Alice to hold hostage while the others went through Charlie's property. It was most likely the last thing that he'll do as a male of the human species. Alice decidedly kicked him in the groin, not really holding back any of her strength. When he went to ground, he didn't even think of getting back up. The others called out to him, but he couldn't make a sound. By that time, we had walked up to the others who had their guns drawn, and Carlisle had walked over to Alice's victim. We didn't flinch as they pointed their guns at our heads; we just reached out and took them out of their hands, bending them in the process. Then we, being the honorable people that we are, handed them back. In the meantime, Carlisle had removed the young man's pants and examined Alice's handywork. In a reasonably loud voice, he said, "I'm so sorry, young man, but I'm afraid that she's destroyed both of your testicles. As a surgeon, there is nothing that I can do to repair the damage. They're both going to have to be removed. You boys, come over here and get your friend. He needs to go to the emergency room as soon as you can get him there." The rest of us just laughed as they picked up their friend and carried him away. The rest of the evening went well. We had no more surprise visitors. When the movers got back from their supper, they took their empty trucks and left, no questions asked.

The boys got back about four hours later with the three U-Haul trucks and another car trailer. We had the three trucks loaded within an hour. Edward put the Volvo in tow, and Charlie and I got to drive his Aston Martin while he took over one of the new trucks. Rosalie drove the other, and Esme drove her Mercedes.

Again, we drove straight through, taking only "Charlie breaks" as they came to be called. We arrived in Lebanon, New Hampshire early Friday morning. We pulled all of the trucks up to our house. We parked Charlie's trucks in the back of the house, out of sight from the road. The driveway for this house was relatively short compared to most of our houses, and the foliage in front of the house was less dense as well. If you really looked, you could barely make out the house from the road. The back yard, however, abutted a nice thick forest which went on for miles.

We made quick work of unloading our U-Haul and arranging the house. We unpacked our room and helped with the rest of the house. Luckily, there was an extra bedroom in the house, so Charlie could have a room of his own until his house was ready. We helped him unpack several of his things to make him feel at home. Then Esme took him to show him the house that she had tentatively picked out for him. While they were gone, I went shopping and stocked the pantry with food for Charlie. When they returned thirty minutes later, he was ecstatic. He loved the house and the neighborhood. There wasn't much of a yard for him to keep up with. Jasper immediately called Jenks and told him to begin the process of purchasing the house and to put it in Charlie's name.

Then we all went to the Driver's License bureau. Carlisle, Esme, and Charlie were able to get their licenses quite easily. However, when it came to us, the problems began. Emmett, Rosalie, and Jasper were all playing parts old enough to have regular driver's licenses from Alaska. However, in New Hampshire, everyone under eighteen had to have a driver's education class to get a driver's license. We weren't required to take driver's education in Alaska to get our driver's licenses, so the officer's were left with conflicting laws in the cases of Emmett, Rosalie, and Jasper. They finally decided to give them their licenses. Edward and Alice had their provisional licenses from Alaska, and I had my permit from Alaska. The officers stated that in order for the three of us to get our licenses, we would have to take a driver's education class and subsequently drive the number of supervised hours required by New Hampshire law. Carlisle assured us that he would hire a private tutor and get our licenses as soon as we possibly could. It was all that Charlie could do not to laugh at the look on our faces.

After finally getting the driver's licenses, we dropped Charlie off at the house, and we all went to the high school. We all walked into the main office. The secretary, Ms. Espey, asked if she could help us.

"Yes, I need to register my children for school, please. We've just moved into town," Carlisle said.

"These are all your children?" Ms. Espey asked, looking stunned.

"Yes, Esme, my wife, and I adopted them after their parents, friends of ours, were killed three months ago," Carlisle said.

"Oh, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to be rude. It's just, well, it's not every day that I see a couple as young as yourselves come in with six teenagers that they claim to be their children."

"I understand. Our family is a bit unusual."

"Okay. I'm going to need you to fill out these forms on each of the children. Then I'm going to need a copy of their birth certificates, a copy of your adoption papers, a signed release for their prior school records, and two bills that show residency in the school district."

"Okay, how do you want to do this? All six of one item at one time, or one child at a time?"

"Let's do one child at a time, if it's all the same with you."

"Okay. Emmett." He let Emmett fill out the paperwork while he handed her the birth certificate, making sure that Emmett had written the correct year of birth on the forms. We always kept our birthdays, so the only thing that we had to remember was the year that we were born in.

"Edward." He filled out his form, and they finished his chart.

"Alice." She also filled out her form. Then they finished her chart. "That is all of the Cullens."

"The next group are the Hales. Jasper." Then, Rosalie, and finally, me.

"Why are their last names different?" Ms. Espey asked.

"Well, they were already teenagers when their parents passed away. Esme and I aren't trying to replace their parents. We are just trying to help them when they need advise and guide them when we see them going down the wrong path. They are pretty much adults at this point in their lives. They have all had to deal with adult issues. We and they agreed that they should retain their original names. Emmett, Edward, and Alice are distant cousins of ours. They just happened to have the same last names."

"Oh, I see."

"One more thing. I might as well tell you now and quell the rumors. The kids are dating each other. They aren't related by blood, and they were dating when their parents were killed. Esme and I didn't see any reason to break up the couples. Emmett and Rosalie are together. Jasper and Alice are together. And Edward and Bella are together, and yes, we know about it."

"Oh, I see. Well, if they were dating before, I don't think that I would have broken them up either. It is enough that they lost their parents just three months ago." Then in a whisper, "If I may ask, how are they doing?"

"They are doing as well as can be expected. Bella is taking it the hardest. Her emotions are somewhat volatile. The others are very protective of her. She was very close to her father, kind of a Daddy's girl, and she's having a hard time adjusting."

"Okay, we'll keep an eye out on her, try to cut her a bit of slack if we can. Now, about the transcripts," Ms. Espey said.

"I have them right here," Carlisle said. "Their school notarized me a copy because they all need placement in advanced classes, and the principal and guidance counselor was afraid that if you had to send for their records, their placement would be delayed." He handed our transcripts from Anchorage High School to Ms. Espey. They included Emmett's SAT scores of W-600, M-650, and CR-660, Rosalie's SAT scores of W-690, M-680, and CR-700, and Jasper's SAT scores of W-744, M-720, and CR-775.

"Well, we usually require the transcript to come directly from the school, but a notarized transcript will suffice. Your children are remarkable. We will be very glad to have them at Lebanon High School. When will they be starting?"

"Monday."

"Their schedules will be ready for them Monday morning. I will try to match what they were taking at Anchorage High School as closely as I can. They may be sharing classes because we only have one advanced class in most subjects."

I sighed, and Carlisle looked at me with chagrin on his face. "It's okay," I said in vampire volume.

Just then two girls came into the office. They did a double take when they walked by the guys. It was starting already. They stood in line behind Carlisle, waiting for him to finish.

"Okay, Mr. Cullen,"

"It's Dr. Cullen," Carlisle said.

"Pay up," Emmett said, holding out his hand. Edward and Jasper stood up and pulled out their wallets. They each pulled out a twenty and gave it to Emmett. "I knew that he couldn't stand it. I knew that he would have to tell her before we left."

"Yeah, well he tolerated it for a long time, longer here than in Anchorage," Jasper said.

"You know Carlisle; he earned it; he wants to show it off," Emmett said.

"Do you boys bet on everything?" Carlisle asked, turning around.

"Yes sir," Emmett said. "Do you want in?"

"No thank you, Emmett. I don't think that you should be betting at school, though."

"Yes sir," Emmett said.

"Are there any fees?" Carlisle asked, turning back to Ms. Espey.

"Well, are they going to be driving to school?"

"Yes, two vehicles,"

"Okay, that will be $20 each, lockers are $20 each, lab fees for sophomores are $50 each, lab fees for juniors are $50 each. That will be $460. We take checks."

"That's okay. He pulled out his wallet and counted out $500. Edward, do you have change for a hundred?" Edward stood up and pulled his wallet back out and counted out five twenties which he handed to Carlisle. When Carlisle tried to give him the $100, Edward told him to just keep it. He'd get it later if he needed it. Carlisle then gave Ms. Espey the $460. She took the money and wrote him a receipt. He pocketed it and turned to all of us.

"Okay, you guys go get what you need to start on Monday. I'm going to run by the hospital. Do you need anything else?"

We all got up to leave. The girls were still staring at the guys. As Edward stood up again, one of the girls started to walk towards him. He saw her coming, and he put his arm around my shoulder, pulling me closer to him. "Come on, love. We've still got a lot of unpacking to do, and I really wanted to take you out tonight. It's been too long since we've had any private time, if you know what I mean."

"I know exactly what you mean, sweetheart. Boy, do I know what you mean," I said, leaning into him. The girl stopped where she was, staring at us.

"Edward, Bella, I'm going to need you two to help unpacking before you two disappear tonight, okay?" Carlisle said.

"Okay, Carlisle. We'll help, I promise, but you've got to give us a little time together," Edward said.

"Us, too," Jasper said, pulling Alice to him. "Carlisle, with the move and all, we haven't had any time to ourselves. Ali and I even had to ride in separate cars for most of the trip. At least Edward and Bella got to ride together."

"Yeah, Rosie and I had to ride separately, too. Carlisle, you owe us. We want some private time together, too. It's been almost a week since we've been alone. We'll help unpack, but we all want tonight to be ours. Deal?"

"Carlisle, they're right. They haven't had any time together since we left Alaska. They've driven across the entire country. Let them have the night to themselves. Kids, I've made an executive decision. Tonight is yours. No curfew. Stay out as late as you want. Just be safe and no alcohol. We won't be waiting up on you," Esme said.

"Thanks, Mom," we all said in a chorus of voices.

"Yeah, call me Carlisle and call her Mom," Carlisle said, laughing.

"Well, she just said that we could stay out all night," Edward said. "What would you do?"

"Get out of here. Have fun, but be safe," Carlisle said, pulling Esme closer. Then he said to Esme, "You spoil them, you know?"

"They're good kids. They've been through so much since their parents died. They deserve a little spoiling," Esme said, making sure that the girls in the line heard every word. We went out of the office in front of Esme and Carlisle. School must be on a break, because when we left the office, all of the students were standing in front of the school in the area by the parking lot. We walked to the cars as couples. We loaded up and left campus. We stopped by a local Five and Dime and picked up notebooks and paper, then we went home.

We made sure that the house was unpacked. Then Edward sat down at his piano and played for me until it was time for me to go get ready for our "date." I went upstairs, and Alice had picked out my clothes, of course. Edward and I showered, and we got dressed. Alice had started giving me a small break in the amount of Bella Barbie that she had subjected me to. I guess that she'd decided that in the five years that we'd been apart, I'd learned a little about what make-up worked for me. I put on a little more than usual because we were going out into the night lights, and I wanted to look nice for Edward.

Then, we split into the two cars that we would be taking to school. Because of the New Hampshire laws, Edward, Alice, and I wouldn't be allowed to drive after sixty days. To be totally honest, I wouldn't be allowed to drive at all without an adult in the car because all that I had was a driver's permit. We would have to allow Emmett and Jasper drive us around, so we'd be taking the Jeep and Alice's Porsche to school.

We arrived at the only theater in town with plenty of time to see the movie that we wanted to see. There was a long line because it was the opening weekend. We drew some attention when Jasper drove into the parking lot in the bright yellow Porsche. The four of us climbed out of it, and holding hands, Edward and I walked and got into line. Emmett and Rose, and Jasper and Alice did the same and joined us. Everybody in the line was wearing coats, but we didn't bring any. It was only forty-five degrees outside, and we weren't used to the locals wearing coats in this kind of weather. It caused us to further stand out.

The people in the line ahead of us kept looking back, staring at us. Finally, the guy said, "Aren't you guys cold?"

"No, not really," Edward said. "We just moved here from Alaska. This is actually a nice night."

"Oh, okay. My name is Kevin, and this is my girlfriend, Heather. We go to the high school. You must be the guys that Shelley was talking about who are starting school on Monday."

"I don't know a Shelley, but we are starting school on Monday. I am Edward, and this is my girlfriend, Bella. This is my brother Emmett and his girlfriend Rosalie, and this is my sister Alice and her boyfriend, Jasper. It's nice to meet you."

Kevin had reached the front of the line, so he turned and bought his tickets. Then we were at the front of the line. Edward bought all of our tickets, and we went inside. We went straight into the theater and found six seats together near the back of the theater. We sat down, and I immediately turned to Edward and gave him a kiss. It was very nice to be able to sit back without my dad in the room and have a nice kiss. While we loved having Charlie with us, we would be glad when we could move him into his own home.

The movie was actually good. Surprisingly, we all actually watched it. When it was over, we all walked out of the theater together. We walked over to the cars which had gathered a crowd after the movie was over. There were a gaggle of guys who were crowded around Alice's car and a group of girls standing off to the side, basically tapping their feet waiting for the guys to satisfy their curiosity. When we walked up to the car, the guys parted for us.

"Nice car," we heard from several directions.

"Thank you," Alice said with a big grin on her face. "I love it."

"This is yours?" someone in the crowd asked.

"Yes, this is my baby," Alice said.

"Are you able to handle this much power between your legs?" someone asked.

Jasper growled, but Alice put her hands on his chest to hold him back. "Trust me, boys, my man has much more power than this ole car does, and it has 385 horses and I've had it 0 to 100 in 11.2 seconds and up to 160 several times. That's all that you need to know. Now if you'll excuse us..." We all opened the doors, and Alice handed Jazz the keys. He grinned at the boys surrounding the car.

"You wanna race, cowboy?" a tall, blond, buff boy asked, standing up to Jasper.

"What, race this?" Jazz asked, gesturing to the Porsche. "You really think that you have something that will beat this car?"

"No, I think that I can beat you," he said. "I'll be driving my vette."

"Where and when?"

"Follow me, if you dare." We jumped in the car and followed him to a darkened stretch of road.

"How far?" Jazz asked.

"There is a store about five miles down this road. The road isn't straight by a long shot. There are a lot of curves, perfect for your car, if you know how to drive it." Several of the cars that had followed us, in fact, all of them except one, had gone on down the road.

"What are we waiting on?" Jazz asked.

"They will call us when they are at the store. They are running the road to make sure there aren't any cops staking out the route," the boy said. After ten minutes, his phone rang. "Okay, the road is clear."

The people in the other car stepped into the road. One of them stepped between the two cars. "On your marks, get set, GO!"

Jasper and the vette started down the road. Before we knew it, Jasper was traveling at seventy mph. He was behind the vette who was blocking his way. Alice had looked into the future and saw that the way was clear, so on the next curve, Jazz accelerated into the curve and passed the vette on the wrong side of the road. As we came out of the curve, Jazz was going 110 mph. We hit another straight away, and all of a sudden, both Alice and Edward yelled, "Slow down now!" Jazz hit the brakes as hard as he could without losing control of the car, and the vette passed us like we were sitting still. Within forty-five seconds, blue lights started rotating, and a police car pulled out behind the vette. He was going at least 90 mph when he was clocked. He pulled over, and we drove by going the legal limit. After we were out of sight of the police, we sped up again, this time accelerating back to over 100 mph. When we pulled into the store, the people waiting there cheered. We waited there with them until the vette pulled up. The guy inside was furious.

He spun out in the parking lot before coming to a complete stop next to the Porsche. He threw open the door and jumped out. His face was red, and you could almost see the fumes coming off of his head. He ran over to the driver's door of the Porsche and pulled it open, pulling Jasper out of the car.  
"How did you know that they were there?" he yelled in Jasper's face, spittle flying out of his mouth.

"I don't know what you mean," Jazz said.

"You slowed down right before that cop pulled me over! You had to know that he was there! How the fuck did you know?" he yelled. The crowd was silent. You could hear a pin drop.

"How could I know that there was a cop there? I just moved to town today. I had to follow you to this road. There is no way that I could have known that there was a cop there," Jazz said. "Now, back off. I can't fucking stand sore losers. Come on, let's get out of here."

"You ain't going anywhere!" the guy said.

"Who's going to stop me?" Jazz asked.

"I am," the guy said, taking hold of Jasper's shirt.

"I would advise you to remove you hand from him," Edward said, coming up behind Jazz.

"Why, are you going to fight his battles?" he asked.

"No, I'm just warning you. Jasper doesn't lose fights. He never has. I don't want you to get hurt," Edward said.

Alice walked up to Jasper. "Jazz, honey. Please, just take me home. I don't want to start out here like this." She stood up on her tip-toes and kissed Jasper. "Carlisle won't like it if we start out like this here." She kissed him again.

Jasper looked at her. He smiled at her and said, "Whatever you say, darlin'. Let's go home." He turned to walk away from the guy who had his hand fisted in his shirt. Alice froze in her step. She was staring off into space. Jasper and Edward froze where they were. Edward started speaking in vampire volume.

"She is seeing this guy throw a punch at you and miss you, Jazz. He hits Alice by mistake. You retaliate and hit him. You break his nose, and he bleeds all over the place. You lose control and start to feed off of him. When Bella sees you feeding off of him, she loses control and feeds off of one of the ones in the crowd. Jazz, you've got to control your temper."

Alice comes to then and screams, "Jazz, no! Don't do it!" She crumples to the ground. Jasper takes one look at me, and then he grabs the guy's hand and pries it off of his shirt. He runs to me at human speed and takes my hand. Then he crosses the street with me and pulls me into the woods. As soon as we are far enough into the woods, we start running at vampire speed away from the crowd.

We ran until we couldn't hear the voices anymore. I was glad that he had gotten me out of that situation. Unfortunately, Jasper was the only legal driver for the state of New Hampshire. Oh, well. If we got in trouble for having an underaged driver tonight, that would be infinitesimally better than if Jasper or I lost control tonight and killed someone.

Finally, the other cars started to drive by. One by one, we watched as the spectators vacated the area. About an hour later, the Porsche pulled to a stop across the road from where Jasper and I were waiting. We crossed the street and climbed in. Alice drove us the rest of the way home. Edward filled us in on what happened after we left. It seems that the guy, his name was Kurt, said some choice things about Jasper when he and I left. He thought that Jasper was chicken, and although Edward and Alice said that Jasper left to keep from hurting him, he, and the crowd, didn't believe them. That upset Jasper just a little bit. The Southern Gentleman in him didn't appreciate being called yellow. We reassured Jasper that he did the right thing. Everyone finally left when we reassured them that Jasper and Bella wouldn't be coming back.

Once we got home, we shared the story with the rest of the family. They weren't happy with the fact that we were racing, especially Charlie, but they were very happy with the extent of Jasper's control. It wasn't long ago that he wouldn't have been able to control either his temper or his need to feed.

The rest of the weekend went by without complication. Jenks got in touch with Jasper and told him that the owners of Charlie's house accepted the offer that we'd made. He was going to overnight the package to us for the appropriate signatures. The house would belong to Charlie within three days. You could see the sparkle in his eyes when Jasper told him.

Monday morning arrived, and we arrived at school in plenty of time to go to the office and pick up our schedules. Mrs. Espey had our schedules ready for us to pick up. I looked at my schedule, and it didn't look too bad. When I compared it to Edward's, I wasn't surprised to find out that we shared all of our classes. I looked over Alice's as well, and she, too, was in every class with us.

Our first class was gym which we were lucky enough to have with Emmett, Rosalie, and Jasper. We all headed over to the gymnasium and joined the crowd that was already gathered. We looked around for the coach. We finally found him when he walked into the gym five minutes before class started. We all walked up to him with our new student forms. We had one for each class. We handed the form for gym to him. He looked us over, his eyes resting on Emmett.

"Do you play any sports?" he asked Emmett.

"No sir. We move around a lot, and we've never stayed in a community long enough for us to join any teams," Emmett said.

"Are you interested in joining any of our teams?" Coach Mitchell asked.

"No sir. We really spend a great deal of time on our studies. I don't have the time to devote to sports. Thank you for asking, though," Emmett said. When Coach Mitchell turned his back, Emmett rolled his eyes.

"All right. The boys' locker room is over there, and the girls' locker room is over here. I expect you to dress out for gym every day. And just to let you girls know, your monthly visitor is not an excuse for not participating. I expect full participation from all of you."

We went into the appropriate locker rooms and changed for gym. Luckily, this school didn't make you wear uniforms for gym. We were able to wear clothing that actually covered our bottoms for a change. When we were finished changing, we walked back to the basketball court. We were expecting to go outside for gym, but the powers that be obviously thought that it was too cold for outdoor activities. Instead, we would be playing dodgeball inside the gym.

It had been forever since I'd played dodgeball. I was actually having a good time, but every now and then, one of my siblings would have to remind me to move at human speed. After playing for most of the allotted time, only the six of us were left on the court. There were two balls in play. Jasper had one of the balls, and Emmett had the other. They had gotten together on a strategy on who to try to get out. I knew that it wasn't going to be Alice or Rosalie, common sense told me that, so Edward or I was going to be the target. I slowly moved so that I was standing behind Alice. When Emmett threw the ball at Edward, he jumped to his left, just as Jasper threw the ball to his left. Edward made a diving jump forward, just going under the ball as it hit the ground behind him. He then stood up, just a little bit too quickly and ran after the ball that had just missed him, catching it and in one motion, swung it around and letting it go, hit Rosalie with it. She looked at Edward with disgust, and during the motion of walking off of the court, walked by Edward and punched him in the arm.

"I'll get you back for that little brother. You just wait until the next time you want me to tune up that fine black baby of yours. You're going to be out in the cold," Rosalie said.

"Oh, come on Rose. This is all in fun," Edward said, not turning in time to see the ball coming at him. "Who?" he turned to see that Alice had already retrieved the other ball from across the room. "Bella, you could've warned me!"

"But it is all in fun," I laughed. He laughed, too, and walked over to Rosalie and put his arm around her shoulders. They walked off of the court together. That left Emmett, Jasper, Alice, and me. Jasper had a ball, and I had a ball. I faked throwing one towards Alice and instead, threw it towards Emmett who ducked out of the way. He grabbed the ball on it's rebound, and I soon had his and Jasper's balls coming at me. I dodged Jasper's ball by falling flat to the floor, and then I dodged Emmett's ball by doing a backbend and having the ball bounce under my back. I stood all of the way up, and Alice and I ran to get the balls. By this time, the whole gym was watching the four of us play. I walked up to Alice, and we made a plan to take Jasper out. I threw my ball at his feet, just a little to the left of where he was standing, forcing him to jump to the right, and Alice threw her ball to the upper right, at exactly the spot where his shoulder would be when he jumped. She hit him fair and square.

Jasper shook his head and walked off of the court to sit beside Edward and Rosalie. Emmett grabbed both of the balls. Alice and I spread apart so as not to give him one target. He would have to choose which one of us that he was going to go after. He looked straight at me, so I suspected that he was going to go after Alice. I was partially right. He threw a ball at each of us. He missed us both, giving us each a ball. We got together and planned to take out Emmett. We knew that he had seen how we had taken out both Edward and Jasper. We knew that it wouldn't work again. This time, we decided that we would aim low and low. I threw my ball first, at Emmett's feet. He jumped straight in the air. Alice timed her throw perfectly. It hit his feet at exactly the time that he landed from his jump.

That left just Alice and me. We each had one ball apiece. We circled each other looking for an opening. I knew that I would lose this game. It was the same as playing chess with Alice. She could see what my next move would be. She could always predict my moves, yet, I couldn't know what her moves would be. I figured that I might as well get this over with. I twirled with the ball and let it go at the same time that Alice let hers go. Both of the balls were on target. Alice jumped at the last second, and my ball missed her by inches, but her ball, while right on target to hit me, bounced away from me before it touched me. I stood there stunned. Alice froze, and my siblings stood where they had been seated. Everyone in the stands thought that the ball had hit me, and I walked up to Alice and shook her hand. Then I walked over to my siblings.

"What the hell was that, Bella?" Rosalie asked me.

"I don't know. I didn't do anything. The ball just didn't hit me," I said in a low voice.

Alice made her way over to us, shrugging off the congratulations of the other students. "Did you see this happening?" Edward asked her.

"If I'd have seen this happening, do you think that I'd have let us get down to just the two of us? Do you think that I'm stupid all of a sudden, Edward?" Alice asked, her voice showing signs of strain.

"Calm down. No one noticed anything. It got close enough to her that everyone thought that it hit her," Jasper said. "No harm, No foul. We'll tell Carlisle when we get home. For right now, we need to act like nothing unusual happened. Let's go get changed and get to out next class."

"Bella, are you feeling alright, love?" Edward asked me.

"Yes, I feel fine. I don't feel any differently," I answered. "Jasper is right. We need to act like nothing has happened. We'll tell Carlisle tonight. Let's go."

We went into the locker rooms and Alice was immediately surrounded again by well wishers. She thanked them, and we got dressed. She looked at me several times as if trying to judge if I was truly okay. When we were ready, we walked outside and met up with our guys. Edward put his arm around my shoulders and leaned over to give me a kiss on the top of the head. "Are you sure that you're feeling alright, love?"

"Yes, I'm sure. I feel fine. No different, honestly," I told him. Our next class was Algebra II. We went into the main building and quickly found the correct classroom. The three of us handed the newbie slip of paper to the teacher, Mr. Mosby, and he gave us our textbooks. We took seats in the back of the classroom, and he began teaching. We got a lot of stares, but we ignored them, all of us distracted by what had happened in gym. When Mr. Mosby came by our desks to ask us if we had any problems keeping up with the class, we told him that we hadn't. He assigned the homework, and the bell rang, signaling morning break.

We put our book into our lockers which were conveniently right next to each other. Then we met up with our siblings in the front area of the school. We had brought light wind breakers today, so we fit in a little better with the rest of the students. We found an area that was pretty much empty, and we claimed it for ourselves. We stood there, talking among ourselves in near vampire volume, making sure that we weren't overheard. None of the others had ever heard of a physical shield as a power before, but before me, Edward hadn't ever run across anyone that he hadn't ever been able to hear before either. We wondered if the "shield" for lack of a better term was just the vampire extension of my ability to block people from my mind.

While we were talking, we didn't notice that a group of people were approaching us until they had gotten there. "So you are here," Kurt said, pushing Jasper in the back. "Why did you run away Friday night? Were you chicken?"

As a group, we turned towards Kurt and his cronies. Jasper clenched his fists and turned around, facing Kurt. "No, I'm not afraid of you, or your posse," he said. "I just don't want to hurt you; make you bleed."

"Because of you, I got my car taken away from me for the rest of the year," Kurt said.

"I don't see why you are blaming that on me. I didn't call the cops. I didn't know where they were," Jazz said. "It wasn't my route, and you're the one who said that the road was clear, not me. I should be the one angry at you. You almost got me caught in that trap. If I hadn't gotten a funny feeling, I'd be the one in trouble with my parents. As it is, they're not happy with the fact that we were racing."

"That ain't my problem. Bottom line is that I'm going to take that ticket out of your hide, chicken," Kurt said, and he moved to hit Jasper, taking a swing at him. Jasper quickly moved Alice out of the way and blocked the punch. Kurt then backed up a step and tried to do a roundhouse kick aimed at Jasper's head. Jasper blocked the kick with ease, causing Kurt to lose his balance and fall to the ground. The crowd that had surrounded us since the beginning of the fight burst out laughing.

As the teachers who had duty during the breaks started trying to make their way through the surrounding crowd, Kurt leaped to his feet and shouted, "Damn it! Fight me, you chicken!"

Jasper said, "I have no intentions of fighting you. I told you, and my brother told you. I wouldn't want for you to get hurt."

Kurt yelled out in frustration and threw a series of karate punches, ending in another roundhouse kick also to the head. As he was doing so, the duty teacher had made his way to the inner ring of the circle and said, "Kurt Harris, stop that this instant!" Jasper blocked each punch and the kick, this time, with the last block, he gave him a slight push at the same time which went unnoticed by the crowd and the teacher but not by Kurt who went sprawling onto the ground another time. The teacher went to Kurt and grabbed him by the collar. "Kurt, why are you making trouble again? And with one of the new students? What kind of welcome to our school is that? Go! To the principal's office, now! I'll be along when break is over." Then he shoved Kurt towards the office and turned towards the crowd. "This is over. Everyone get back to your own business, now." Then he turned to us. "Are you alright?" he asked Jasper.

"Yes sir. Jasper Hale, sir." Jasper said.

"Mr. Nelson. I teach Biology. What did you do to cross Kurt so early in your day?" Mr. Nelson asked.

"I guess we had a run in Friday night. He challenged us to a race in my girlfriend's car, and he got stopped by the cops. He blamed me for him getting a ticket for some reason," Jasper said.

"Oh, I see. You know that you shouldn't be racing, don't you?" Mr. Nelson asked.

"Of course. That is what our Dad said when we told him what had happened, but then he said that he had done the same thing when he was young, so he couldn't punish me without being a hypocrite," Jasper said.

"You got caught, too?" Mr. Nelson asked.

"No sir. I got a strange feeling and slowed down before we hit the straight away. Kurt was the only one to get caught."

"Then why did you tell your Dad?" Mr. Nelson asked.

"We tell Carlisle and Esme everything," Jasper said.

"Carlisle and Esme?" Mr. Nelson asked.

"Our adoptive parents. Our parents passed away in an accident three months ago," Jasper said, pulling Alice closer to him and giving her a kiss on the top of her head.

"Oh, I'm so sorry. I didn't know," Mr. Nelson said.

"It's okay. It's still really hard, though," Jasper said. The bell rang then, signaling the end of morning break.

"I'd like to talk to you guys again, if that's okay," Mr. Nelson said.

"Sure, if you'd like to," Jasper said, taking Alice's hand and walking into the hallway.

Edward, Alice, and I looked at our schedules and went to our third period class, Chemistry. We got our book and turned in our newbie slips. We again were allowed to take seats in the back of the classroom. Several people were turned in their seats, looking at us, when the teacher, Mrs. Baker called the class to order. She began teaching the lesson, and several of the students in the class were whispering back and forth. We could hear every word that they were saying though they thought that they were keeping their words to themselves. Most of them were talking about how cute Edward was and the fact that they'd heard that I was his girlfriend. I just smiled because as long as they knew that he was taken, I didn't mind if they looked. After all, he was a fine looking hunk of a man. They could dream of my Edward as much as they wanted to; they just needed to keep their hands to themselves.

Finally, Mrs. Baker had had enough. "Autumn, Sandra, Clara. Would you like to share with the class what you feel is so important that you have to discuss it while I am explaining this lesson?"

"Um, not really, Mrs. Baker," one of them said.

"You know the rule. You have one more chance. Do you three want to share with the class what you three were talking about?" Mrs. Baker asked. The three of them looked at each other. The rest of the class stared at them.

"No ma'am. I'm sorry. We'd rather not," the same girl said, hanging her head.

"Okay, then. Everybody take out a sheet of paper and put away your books." Mrs. Baker proceeded to give the class a ten question pop test concerning the lesson that she was covering. "Be sure that you put your names on the paper and pass them to the front of the rows. In the future maybe you'll remember the rule. If you are caught talking in my class, you have the choice of either telling the class what you were talking about or the entire class will take a pop test. Now, for homework, I want for you to outline the rest of the chapter and do the questions at the end of the chapter. I will teach you not to talk during my class if it is the last thing that I do. Now, on a happier note, I know that you have noticed that we have new students. Since we have a little bit of time left before the end of class, let's find out a little bit more about them. Which one of you wants to talk to us?"

I looked at them, and Edward and I, with grins on our faces, shoved Alice out of her seat. She frowned at us, then she walked to the front of the room. "Hi. My name is Alice Cullen. I'm here with my two brothers. Edward is here with me," She pointed to Edward, "and Emmett is a Junior. We are also here with the Hales, who are our boyfriends or girlfriends, whichever applies. I'm with Jasper Hale who is a Junior. Edward is with Bella Hale who is in our class, and Emmett is with Rosalie who is also a Junior. We all just moved from Alaska with Carlisle and Esme Cullen who adopted us all after our parents were killed in a car accident three months ago. They were hit by a drunk driver after they had gone out together to a conference." Alice made her voice get softer and kind of crack at the end of her speech, as if she were going to cry.

"Oh, Alice, I'm so sorry. I didn't know. Is there anything that I can do for you? Anything that you guys need?" Mrs. Baker asked.

"No ma'am. We're adjusting fine. Carlisle and Esme are great, and the new environment is helping us to get a new start," Alice said. "Is that all that you wanted to know?"

"What about hobbies? Is there anything that you three like to do?" Mrs. Baker asked her.

"Well, I design clothes. I actually work for a design company out of New York, and several of my designs have made it big," Alice said.

"What about you, Edward," Mrs. Baker asked.

"Well, I play the piano. I compose some, but mostly I love to play," Edward said.

"Bella, what do you love?" Mrs. Baker asked.

"Reading. I love the classics, especially the Bronte sisters," I said, "and we all love to run. The whole family runs, and we go camping every time we get a chance. We are really outdoorsy people."

"That's nice. It's good to get to know you all a little better," Mrs. Baker said as the bell rang to signal the end of third period.

We got up and headed to our fourth period class, World History. When we found the room, we gave the teacher, Mr. Edwards, our new student slip, and he gave us our textbooks. He informed us that the class had a test on Wednesday which we would not be responsible for. We would start his class on Thursday. We listened to his lecture and discovered that he was very good. I felt like I would enjoy his class. He lectured right until the bell rang, and then it was time for lunch. We met up with Emmett, Rosalie, and Jasper, and after we got our prop food, we found a deserted table away from most of the people. We talked about our mornings, and everyone kept asking me if I felt okay. I kept telling them that I felt normal. Emmett even tried to throw a roll at me. It hit me in the forehead and bounced back on the table.

"May I ask you what you did that for, Emmett?" I asked.

"I wanted to see if your shield would pop up again," he said.

"So you brain me with a roll?" I asked. "So not cool." I shook my head at him. The others laughed, and Emmett hung his head. The bell rang, and lunch was over. We said good-bye to our significant others, and Edward, Alice, and I went to our fifth period class, Geometry.

We gave our teacher, Mr. Poole, our newbie slips and got our textbooks. He began going over the lesson and assigned the homework. He called us to the front of the class after he'd finished teaching the lesson and told us that he expected us to do the work for the entire chapter so that we would be prepared for the test on that chapter. We were on the fifth part of the chapter, so we had to do parts one through four. They would be due by Friday. As we stood there listening to his instructions, I felt as if I were being stared at. I turned around to look behind me, and Kurt was in the first row, staring at me. He made me feel a little uneasy, and if I hadn't been a vampire, I think that he would have scared me. He caught me glancing his way, and he gave me a wink. I quickly turned back to Mr. Poole. I moved closer to Edward and took his hand in mine. He gave my hand a little squeeze which I returned. Mr. Poole dismissed us back to our desks. We worked on our homework until the bell rang.

Sixth period was English II. Our teacher was Mrs. Willis. She took our newbie slips and gave us our textbooks. Then she did something that seemed totally ridiculous. She arranged the class in alphabetical order. She inserted us into the class, making everyone move their seats to place us in the correct place. By the time that she was finished, Edward and Alice were sitting next to each other, and I was sitting a whole row over and several seats back. To make matters worse, I was sitting in front of Kurt Harris. When I took my new seat, I could hear him chuckling under his breath. I felt uneasy, though I knew that I had nothing to fear. When we all were finally seated, Mrs. Willis began her lecture. We were in a grammar section. She finished her lecture and assigned the homework. As I got up to go, I felt my head jerk back. Kurt had a handful of my hair. I fell back down into my desk. Edward was at my side immediately. He had his hand covering Kurt's, and he gave it a slight squeeze. Kurt gasped and let go of my hair. Edward leaned over Kurt's desk and said, "I'm only going to say this once. You are not to touch her again. If you even think about touching her again, I'll know about it, and you'll pay for it. You got one freebie. Next time, you won't just get off with a sore hand. Next time, you won't have to worry about Jasper hurting you, because if you touch Bella again, I'll see to it that you won't ever bother us again. Do you understand me?"

Kurt nodded then he got up from his desk. He passed by us and left the room. Edward gave me his hand and helped me get up. We went outside for our afternoon break. We talked to the others, and Edward told them what Kurt had done. I knew that the guys would be keeping an eye on him from this point on. Otherwise, break went well. It was too short to get into any good conversations, though. Right when we were starting to talk about going hunting tonight, the bell rang for us to go to seventh period.

We had taken a study hall in Black River Falls, but here, they had signed us up for Anatomy and Physiology. We took our slips to the teacher, Mrs. Mayatt, and got our books. She picked up where she left off. We took notes, and the class went off without any problems.

Finally, the last class of the day arrived. We were signed up for Driver's Education. The instructor, Mr. Evans, took our slips and handed out our manuals. He said that the classroom part of the class was complete, so we'd have to make up all of the work on our own. He assigned us Chapter 1 to read and answer the questions on for tomorrow. He asked us how much experience we had driving, and we told him that we already basically had licenses in Alaska. He assigned us to a driver's ed car, and told us that we'd have to pass the simulator test before we would be allowed into a car. He sent the two driving teams off for the period, gave the rest of the class busy work, and took the three of us to the simulator. Edward went first, and he scored perfectly. Alice went next, and she, too, made a perfect score. Finally, it was my turn. I climbed into the simulator and started the car. I followed Mr. Evan's instructions, and when I was finished with the test, he told me that I had also scored perfectly. He was astonished with our successes. He said that nobody else in the class had scored perfectly, even after practicing in the simulator. They'd all made at least one mistake. He passed us on to the driving part of the class which we would begin tomorrow.

All in all, the first day at Lebanon High School topped our first day at Black River High School hands down. Nobody died. Only one person got threatened. We only had one fight. Nobody got sent to the principal's office, and we discovered my new power. All together, it was a good day.


	20. Chapter 20

**Disclaimer: Stephenie Meyers owns it all.**

**Chapter 20 - Isolationism**

The first day of school officially over, we made our way to our cars, threw our backpacks into the trunk, and climbed inside. We drove home in silence, each of us contemplating our day, looking forward to out freedom. Once home, we immediately looked for Carlisle, but he was at the hospital undergoing his own form of torture, the mandatory, JCAHO or Joint Commission for Hospital Accreditation, training sessions. He had to endure countless hours of training on everything from needle-stick protocol to back safety to how to use a fire extinguisher every time he went to a new hospital. It was time consuming and boring for him. We all felt his pain.

In the meantime, we started our homework. It took me an hour to get through today's assignments, even working at vampire speed. Edward and Alice were finished before I was, but they patiently waited for me to finish. Then we started working on the back due homework that a couple of the classes were requiring of us. We had that finished by the time that Carlisle came home from the hospital.

We were taking turns playing_ Guitar Hero_ on the Wii when he came through the door. He looked as if he had been beaten and drug behind a car for miles on end. His tie was undone and hanging around his neck, and he had already untucked his shirt. He slid down onto the couch in the den and sighed. "Hard day at the office, dear," Edward said, laughing.

"If I have to watch that film on back safety one more time, I think that I'll scream!" Carlisle said with a hint of laughter in his voice. He ran his hands through his hair in a distinctly Edward move. We all laughed at him. "Well, how was all of your day?"

"Well, Jasper almost got into a fight with that guy that we were racing with on Friday night, I almost got into a fight with that guy that we were racing with on Friday night, Bella now has a physical shield that she somehow threw up during gym class to block a dodgeball that was coming straight at her, and we've all finished our homework. Pretty good day all told, I guess," Edward said.

"That's good, I guess. Wait! What do you mean, Bella has a physical shield?" Carlisle asked, stunned. We all laughed.

"Well, we were all playing dodgeball during gym, and it came down to Alice and me. I knew that I was a goner, after all, Alice can see the future, and she could predict what my next move would be, so I knew" I started to say.

"Just get to the part about the shield, please," Carlisle interrupted.

"I was, I was. I was just setting the stage. Jeez. Anyway. I knew that I was going to get hit, so I just threw the ball at her and stood there. She dodged my ball, and when her ball came close to me, it just hit some invisible barrier and bounced away. It came to within probably a half a foot of me, but it didn't touch me at all. Nobody except us noticed it. Everyone else thought that the ball bounced off of me."

"Yeah, then I tried to get it to happen again during lunch, but it didn't work," Emmett said.

"What did you do?" Carlisle asked him.

"I threw a roll at her head," Emmett said. "It hit her right between the eyes. No shield."

"Yeah, he was lucky that he didn't get us in trouble for a food fight," I said.

"Have you ever heard of a physical shield, Carlisle?" Edward asked.

"No, I haven't. I don't think that I ever have....wait, wait just a second, Aro has a guard who can project a shield. She can use it to protect him from physical attacks. I'm not sure how she is able to project it, if she was initially able to project it, or if she had to learn how to project it, but Aro always keeps her close to him in battle."

"Okay, then we know that this is not only possible, but that it already exists. We just need to work with Bella to help her learn how to control it. Maybe one day soon, she will be able to project it as well," Edward said.

"This could be a really useful power," Alice said, coming over to Bella. "I can't wait to see how it develops."

"What? Are you all just going to start throwing things at me now?" I asked, somewhat jokingly. They nodded their heads. "You are joking, right? Come on guys. Right?"

Jasper smiled his quirky smile and said, "We're only joking, Bella. We don't plan on just throwing things at you. We will do it a lot more planned than that. After all, we will need to figure out what triggers the shield. Whether you need to be scared, or tense, or anxious, or what other emotion you may need to be feeling."

"Well, let's go give it a try. Did you unpack your basketball, Emmett?" I asked.

"Yeah. I'll go get it. Meet ya in the backyard," he said as he took off upstairs. The rest of us went into the backyard. I stood away from them, and when Emmett came outside with the basketball, he threw it at me. I wasn't expecting it, so when it hit me in the back, I let out a small yell. It bounced off of me, and Alice got the "rebound." She walked in front of me and made sure that I knew that she was about to throw the ball at me. I nodded at her, and she threw the ball. It hit me on the leg, and then it bounced off towards Edward. He got the ball and immediately threw it at me again. Again it bounced off of me, this time off of my shoulder.

While my siblings were throwing the basketball at me, Carlisle, Esme, and Charlie had walked outside onto the patio. Charlie looked confused at the situation and said, "What bet did you lose, Bella?"

I turned towards him to explain that we were experimenting with my new power when Edward threw the ball at me again. This time, it was heading for my head. It never got there. It hit my shield and bounced away from me towards Charlie who picked it up. "What just happened? I swear that the ball just missed you by a half foot and bounced away."

"That was what I was trying to tell you, Dad. We were trying to force my new power to show itself again. Did you pick up any particular emotion, Jasper?" I asked.

"What? A new power? What do you mean? Vampires have powers?" Charlie asked.

"Dad, I've told you about our powers. Remember, Edward can read minds, and Alice can see the future, and Jasper is an empath. I can block Edward's mind reading, and now it seems that I have some sort of physical shield as well. We just don't know what triggers it. Maybe the shield comes when my body senses danger."

"No, Bella. I didn't pick up any emotion at all. You didn't see it coming. You weren't afraid or anything," Jasper told me.

"Besides, I threw the ball at you when I first came out, before you knew I was here, and it hit you in the back. No shield," Emmett said.

"Maybe the shield doesn't like you, Emmett," Edward said, laughing. The others joined in. "It didn't come up for you during lunch either."

"No, that would mean that she isn't afraid of her big brother, Emmett. Her shield knows that he would never hurt her," Emmett said, coming up to me and giving me a big bear hug.

"Emmett, can't breath," I squeaked out. He let me go before he realized that I was faking. He knocked me on the arm. I just laughed.

"Well, we're not going to figure this one out tonight. Do you have any ideas, Carlisle?" I asked.

"No, Bella. I really don't. I don't know that throwing a basketball at you is going to solve the dilemma though. I'll have to think about it," he said.

We all went back inside. I read until morning when it was time to get ready to go back to school. If there was one thing that I liked about not sleeping, it was having all of the time in the world to read. I didn't think that I would ever get tired of reading. So far, I hadn't.

When we arrived at school, we were met at our cars again by Kurt. I had a feeling that he wasn't going to give up until one of us hurt him. He had arrived with a friend just a couple of cars ahead of us. He seemed to be seething about having to catch a ride to school. He stood in front of Alice's car until we'd all gotten out of it. When we started to walk around the car, he moved to block our way. "You know, the three of you are a lot of talk, but no action when you get to the bottom of the situation at hand. You say that you don't want to hurt me, but you act chicken and walk away from me at every opportunity."

"Jasper, don't. It won't end good," Alice said.

"In what way, AliCat?" Jasper asked, his hands fisting and unfisting.

Alice looked into space for a few seconds and said,"No blood, but you'll be suspended."

"I can handle that. You're sure no blood?"

"Yes, Jazz, but I'll miss you," Alice said.

"I'm sorry, AliCat, and I'll miss you, too, but this has to stop," Jasper said. "It's time for them to leave us alone, don't you think?"

"You have to get permission from your girlfriend to fight me? What kind of a man are you?" Kurt asked.

"I just wanted to make sure that I didn't hurt you too badly," Jasper said. "Where do you want to take this?"

"Right here is fine with me, Cowboy," Kurt said.

"Fine by me, asswipe," Jasper said. Then he put his bookbag back into the trunk of the Porsche. He walked back to face Kurt, and he just stood there. The rest of us backed up in a circle to prevent anyone from interfering. Jasper looked at Kurt and said, "Bring it on." Kurt leaned in and took the first punch. Jasper backed out of the way, and Kurt ended up swinging at air, ending up so off balance that he took a step forward, ending with his chin meeting Jasper's fist. Jasper hadn't even swung, he just placed his fist in the air and let Kurt's force hit his hand. It jarred Kurt, knocking him to the ground. He jumped quickly to his feet, coming at Jasper again, this time aiming a punch at Jasper's stomach. He almost connected as Jasper side stepped this one, forcing Kurt to stumble forward. Jasper just added a little push to his already forward momentum causing him to eat the gravel. By this time, a nice little crowd had joined in the audience. They were yelling for Kurt to "show the new guy who's boss." Kurt jumped back up, turning to face Jasper again. There was fury in his eyes. This time, Kurt walked up to Jasper who hit him in the left temple, just a soft tap, really. Kurt's head snapped to the right. Then Jasper hit him in the stomach, doubling him over. Jasper then finished him off with a blow to the back of the neck. Kurt hit the ground, landing prone, stretched out, gasping for air. The crowd seemed to be a little shocked, and they dispersed, talking amongst themselves as to how Jasper had been able to take on Kurt with little to no effort expended at all.

Jasper looked at us and started walking to the office. We all knew what the outcome would be. We made our way to the gym to change into our clothes. We were on time, and Coach Mitchell had us play dodgeball again. This time, we were the last ones left again. We had plenty of time left to play, and we decided to avoid getting out for as long as we could. We agreed to keep it on a human level, but to throw the ball with increased speed. If we could avoid the ball we would. By the time for gym to be over with, none of us had gotten out, even with the extra speed on the ball.

When we went into the locker room to change, Alice's cell rang. She answered it. "Hey, Jazz. Well, what happened?...Are you on your way home?...Oh, yeah, I guess so...Okay, we'll be out in a few minutes....I love you, too. Bye." Then she turned to us. "Jazz is suspended for three days. Esme is here to pick him up, but he still has the keys to the car. He is outside waiting on us to get dressed." We hurried and finished changing in record time. When we walked out of the locker room, Jasper was standing off to the side with Edward and Emmett and Esme who were talking. We walked up to them, and Alice gave Jasper a hug and a quick peck on the cheek. He gave her the keys to the car.

"Was Mr. Vance okay?" I asked.

"He was like any other principal. 'I know that you're new here, and I don't want to have any trouble out of you. You know that fighting is against school policy. Kurt may have been bothering you, but there are better ways of handling these situations.' You know, the usual. He wasn't too bad. He made me call Esme and tell her why I was in the office. You know the routine, trying to embarrass me. I got the usual three days. Anyway, he shouldn't be bothering us anymore. If he does, we may need to teach him a stronger lesson off campus," Jasper said.

In the background, I could hear several of the girls talking about Jasper as they came out of the locker room. They were talking about the fight this morning. They thought that Jasper was "really hot," and "super cool," and "yummy." I wasn't sure why Alice wasn't making a big deal over what they were saying. She usually got really clingy when other girls started talking about Jasper, but today, she was just holding his hand and looking at him. I looked at Edward and then looked back at the girls. He nodded to me, telling me that he heard them, too. Then I looked at Alice, and he nodded at me again. I walked into his arms, and he vampire whispered into my ear that Alice wasn't paying them any attention. She was worried about Jasper being at home for some reason. She was trying to come up with a reason to spend the next three days at home with him. She finally convinced Esme, and before she left, she tossed her keys to Edward who pocketed them.

"What was that all about?" Emmett asked after they left.

"I have no clue," Edward said as the bell rang. "I didn't see anything. She was blocking me. She was translating the National Anthem into Greek. We'll see you at lunch." He took my hand, and we walked to Algebra II. We turned in our homework and did our next assignment during class. During morning break, Emmett and Rosalie asked me if Alice had said anything to me about what was wrong with her. I told them that she had seemed normal to me. She hadn't said anything to make me think that something was out of the ordinary.

The rest of the day went well until it was time for English II. Kurt wasn't in class, but his best friend was. He came up to Edward before Mrs. Willis came into the room and said, "I guess you know that your 'brother' got Kurt suspended."

"No, I didn't know that. Thank you for the information. It only seems to be equitable, as Jasper was also suspended for the fight," Edward responded.

"I don't think that it was 'equitable' at all. Kurt was the only one that was hurt. I don't see how that was fair at all," his friend complained.

"Kurt was warned more than once not to push Jasper. I, for one, told him that Jasper doesn't lose fights. It's not our fault that Kurt doesn't know how to take good advise when it is given to him," Edward smirked. "Jasper has been a fighter all of his life. I don't think, no, I know that he hasn't ever lost a fight."

"You might want to tell your brother that he might want to watch his back. Kurt has a lot of friends at this school. They won't take kindly to someone hurting Kurt," his friend said with a hint of menace in his voice.

"You might want to tell Kurt's friends that they might want to keep out of this situation. Jasper doesn't take kindly to threats, and neither do his brothers," Edward said in a low voice as Mrs. Willis came into the room.

Before we knew it, it was time for driver's education. Edward and I had finished the driver's education manual and all of the chapter quizzes. We turned them in to the instructor. We told him that we'd be ready to take any of the tests whenever he was ready to give them. He told us that we could take the first several on Friday. Today, we would be joining with two other students to begin the behind the wheel training part of the class. The other two students got to drive first. Then it was my turn. The driver's education car was an automatic. I got behind the wheel and followed Mr. Evan's instructions. After driving for my fifteen minutes, it was Edward's turn. He got behind the wheel, and started to drive. In no time, he was starting to exceed the speed limit. In vampire volume, I reminded him that he was in a driving class and was being graded on his speed. He grumbled but slowed back down. He drove us back to the school. Mr. Evans complemented our driving and said that we were naturals. We drove as if we'd been driving all of our lives. Edward had a hard time suppressing a grin. After all, he had been driving since some of the first cars had been in existence.

We gathered our books from our lockers and went to the car. There, we met up with Emmett and Rosalie. Rose offered to drive us home because of our non-licensed state, but Edward turned her down. It wasn't every day that Alice let him drive her Porsche. We got into our respective cars and drove home without incident. After we parked the cars and went inside the house, we went in search of Alice. Esme told us that she and Jasper had gone hunting. Edward asked Esme if she had noticed anything "off" with Alice, and she said that Alice had seemed alright to her.

To pass the time until Alice and Jasper got back from hunting, Edward and I worked on our homework. It didn't take long to finish it, so he and I worked on my Spanish for awhile. I had let my language studies go with all of the problems that we had encountered, but I really wanted to learn the languages that the others knew. The vampire photographic memory really came in handy. I was learning quickly. We were already to the point that we were able to have conversations using basic words.

Alice and Jasper didn't come back until well after dark. We gave Alice the homework that she'd missed, and she completed it quickly. I pulled her to the side and asked her what was wrong. She looked at me and gave me a big hug. She held on tight, seemingly not wanting to let go. I held her back, trying to give her some comfort, some friendship in my embrace. After some time, she let me go, pulling away to look into my eyes. "I'm worried about Jazz. I had a vision that Kurt tries again to attack him, this time off campus. Jazz ends up really hitting him, and it kills him. We hide the body, but Jazz is the center of the investigation because of their history. It brings a lot of unwanted attention to the family. I have to keep them apart."

"Have you told Jasper about the vision?"

"Yes, but even with him swearing not to have another fight with him, the vision hasn't changed. I don't know why it won't go away. It will usually change if one of the parties to it changes their minds about a decision, but this one won't. I'm actually a little bit scared."

"Have you told anyone else about the vision?"

"No. I don't want them to get mad at Jazz. He has been the cause of our having to move so many times in the past. I don't want anyone to have any hard feelings towards him. He is worried enough about the vision as it is. With his past, well, he has killed enough people and vampires to last him this eternity and the next. You don't see how he berates himself about his past. No one does, but he hates what he has done, what he was forced to do by Maria. Just the idea of him killing Kurt has almost sent him into seclusion."

"Alice, you know that we all love Jasper. He is my brother. I want to protect him from doing anything that will hurt him or this family. He can't hide from this. You can't hide him from this. We have to be able to protect him from this as a family, as a unit with one purpose in mind, and that purpose is to save Jasper and our family. We worked together as a family to save Charlie, and we can do the same for Jasper. Now, where is that brother of mine?"

"Right here," came a voice from behind me.

I turned quickly and saw a form in the shadow made by the door of the room and the wardrobe. "I didn't see you there. I'm sorry if you think that we're talking about you behind your back. I just want you to know that this whole family is here to help you, just like you all were there to help me. I love you, Jasper. You are the best brother that a girl could have." I walked over to where he was standing in the shadows and held out my hand to him. He took my hand into his and pulled me into a hug.

"I know that you will all be there for me, Bella. I feel as if I have a special connection with you since you have joined our family. Before, when you were human, I knew that I had to keep my distance, and even then, I still tried to kill you. It shames me to this day that I was responsible for our family leaving you all of those years ago. But, now, you are my sister in every sense of the word, and I love you as such. I know that you and our family will be with me. I'm just so frightened that I will do something wrong again. I don't know what it will be, but with the vision not changing despite my obvious refusal to kill him, I'm at a loss to explain my actions. Therefore, I don't know how to change them."

"Don't you see the fight, Alice?" I wondered aloud.

"No, I just see the aftermath, the police involvement and the searching for the body," she answered.

"Then, I wonder...." I started, trying to piece everything together in my mind. Right now it was fragments, just snippets coming from here and there.

"What?" Alice asked.

"Give me a minute," I told them. "Right now, let's get the rest of the family involved with this conversation. I just heard Carlisle come in. How 'bout it?"

Alice looked at Jasper, and he nodded. We left their bedroom and went downstairs into the living room. Alice called for the rest of the family to join us. It took a few minutes because Emmett and Rosalie were busy, but before too long, the entire family was gathered together. Alice looked at me, and I nodded for her to go on. As she and Jasper told them what they'd already told me, I tried to piece together my little puzzle. I felt that I had all of the puzzle pieces, the picture just wasn't matching. As the others commented on the aspects of the problem, one thing kept coming back to my mind. Before every confrontation, Jasper had mentioned blood.

"That's It!" I shouted out. "I know what's going to happen!" Every eye in the living room turned towards me. "It's going to be the blood. He's going to cut himself. He's going to have blood of some sort. He's going to be bleeding. It has to be. It is the only thing that Jasper can't control himself against, the only thing that would be able to break his resolve not to kill Kurt."

"What are you saying? He's going to cut himself? Why would he do that?" Edward asked.

"Don't you see? Every time that Jasper mentioned fighting him, he asked Alice about blood, or he mentioned that Alice said that there wouldn't be any blood. Jasper made a big deal about there not being any blood. The first fight, when Jasper and I ran away, it was because Alice said that he'd break his nose, and there would be a lot of blood. Kurt has finally made the connection. Jasper can't stand the sight of blood. He just thinks that it is the sight of blood. He doesn't realize that blood will send Jasper into a feeding frenzy. It all makes sense. That is why the vision doesn't change. It doesn't matter how much Jasper doesn't intend to kill Kurt. If Kurt cuts himself, Jasper won't be able to control himself."

"You're right. That's got to be the explanation. You're a genius," Alice said. If I could have blushed, I would've at that point. "Now, how do we combat that plan?"

"Easy, Jasper doesn't breath around Kurt," I said.

"Bella, it isn't that easy, love. Jasper can't go around not breathing. That would give him away, too," Edward said.

"No, only when Kurt approaches him for the fight. I don't think that he will approach him in the hallway with a bleeding hand. My guess is that he will come up to him at break, like he has always done in the past. I think that Kurt is so much of an exhibitionist that he will want to see Jasper faint at the sight of blood, and he will want an audience for it. Therefore, I think that he will bring an entourage with him at break, get Jasper's attention, then he will do something conspicuous like cut his hand or something on that order. I think that Jasper will have plenty of warning to begin holding his breath and to walk away."

"I only hope so, Bella. If you're right, then I will be able to handle it without any problem, but if it isn't like that, then only bad can come of it," Jasper said.

"That isn't necessarily true. I know that I can hold you off of him, and with Edward's and Emmett's help, we can get you out of the situation. The only problem would be explaining your behavior. Since our parents have just died in a violent, bloody car crash, it would only make sense that you are having a very hard time dealing with the sight of blood. You saw the car with all of the blood on the interior, and haven't been able to deal with the sight of blood since. You freak out at the sight of blood, trying to get to it and wipe it away, get it out of your sight. Would that work, Carlisle?" I asked.

"Yes, I think that it would, Bella. Of course, if we had to use that as an excuse for the school, we may have to get Jasper into some counseling for his aversion to the sight of blood, but all in all, I think that it would work," Carlisle answered.

"Thank you, all of you. You don't know how much your support means to me. I know that you must all be tired of me and my weakness to human blood by now. I know that I should have more control, like the rest of you. Even Bella has more control than I have, and it sickens me that I am so weak," Jasper said.

"Jasper, we do not blame you for your inability to withstand human blood as well as the rest of us. None of us has had to deal with the past that you have lived with and escaped from. We all love you and accept you for the man that you have become. We all have our weaknesses and our own battles that we must face, though different from your own. Don't think for one minute that we think any less of you because of yours," Esme said, getting up to give Jasper a hug. He returned it with an unspoken gratitude.

The rest of us reassured Jasper as well, then we kids went downstairs to hold our first official Wii tournament in our new house. Charlie went to bed, so we had to tone it down, but we still had a great time. The next morning, Alice still didn't feel comfortable enough to leave Jasper alone, so Edward and I piled into Emmett's jeep for the ride to school.

During gym, it soon became apparent that all of the students were aiming for the four of us. It became a really fun game, trying to avoid the balls and the students at the same time. Eventually, we managed to get the other students out by standing in front of someone and moving just in the nick of time to allow the ball to hit the person standing behind us. At some point during the game, the students caught onto our strategy, and they started trying to place people to our sides so that we couldn't side-step the ball. We would then have to time a drop to the ground or a jump to coincide with the passage of the ball depending on whether they were throwing it high or low. We still ended up being the final four. It became a contest between Edward and me and Emmett and Rosalie. With Edward's ability to read their minds, I threw the first ball, and he would follow with the next ball, putting a spin on it to curve in the direction that they would be jumping in to avoid my ball. We got Rosalie out first. She was furious. She blatantly called out our cheat, but Coach Mitchell didn't understand what she meant and called the hit clean. We understood, and grinned at her. Then it was time to take out Emmett. The next time that we got both balls, I threw the first one at his middle section, and Edward followed up with a well placed ball to his left. It hit him right in the groin. We heard the ooohhhhssss from the spectators in the bleachers before Emmett remembered that it should have hurt him. He bent over faking an injury. It took all of my ability to not laugh out loud, but Rosalie didn't even try to control her laughter. She called out, "Hey, Emmett, how's it hanging?"

He just looked at her with a grin on his face. In vampire volume he said, "That's for me to know, and you to find out a little bit later, sweetheart." Edward and I looked at each other and laughed.

Coach Mitchell came up to us and scolded us for laughing at our hurt brother. We looked down in shame. He called an end to the game and told us to all go to the locker rooms and get dressed. When we came out, Rosalie and I went to our men who were standing against the wall. There were several girls standing near them. One of them was trying to talk to Edward. "Exactly how do you guys always end up winning?"

"Just lucky, I guess," he answered her.

"I mean, you are so graceful out there. Are you some kind of gymnast?" she asked.

"No, not at all," he answered her, looking around, trying to spot me.

"That girl that is always with you, isn't she your sister?" she asked.

"No, she's my girlfriend. We've been together for the past 5 years," he said, still searching for me.

"Oh, I heard that she was your sister" she said. "I heard that you were both adopted by the same people and that you live together."

"Oh, that," I said, coming up to slide between her and Edward, putting my arms around his neck and giving him a quick kiss on the lips, "Carlisle and Esme don't see us as siblings. They still see us as two separate families. Hey, sweetheart. Hey Emmie. How are you feeling?" I asked as Rosalie came up to Emmett and put her arm around his back.

"I'm good, Bellaboo. No harm, No foul," Emmett said. "However, Rosie and I insist on a rematch when we get home. I think that Alice and Jasper might want to play, too, especially if we can turn off that special little voice that works in your favor." The bell rang signaling the end of first period. We said our good-bye's and walked to our lockers to get out our Algebra II books and homework.

We went to class and took our seats. We were surprised by a pop-test which was exceedingly easy. Then we got started on the day's homework. We easily finished it before the period was completed. Mr. Mosby came by my desk when he realized that I was reading _The Iliad. _"Excuse me, Miss Hale, but will you explain to meexactly why you are reading in my class?"

The whole class turned to look at me. I looked up from my book and said, "I've already completed the assignment."

"Well, then you won't mind if I take a look at it, will you?"

"Of course not," I replied as I picked up my notebook and took out the homework and handed it to him.

He looked at the paper for several minutes, during which I went back to reading my book. He finally handed it back to me. "Okay. This work is excellent. Have you already covered this material at your other school?"

I looked at Edward before I answered. He shrugged his shoulders ever so slightly so that only I would have noticed. "No sir, math just comes easy to me. I usually can pick it up from reading the book, so I can start working on the problems pretty soon after class starts. Edward does as well," I said, gesturing at him.

He hung his head, and in vampire volume, he said, "Way to stay inconspicuous, Bella."

"Is that true, Edward? Have you finished your work as well?" Mr. Mosby asked.

"Yes, sir," Edward said, pulling his homework out of his notebook and handing it to Mr. Mosby who looked at it for several minutes.

"This, too, is excellent work. You are both gifted in Math. What is it going to take to keep you interested in this class?" Mr. Mosby asked.

"I'm not sure, sir. I really haven't found a Math class yet that can keep Bella, Alice, or myself interested or entertained," Edward said. "In fact, there really isn't much in school that keeps us or our siblings entertained. It is all very natural to us. Our parents, when they were alive, traveled with us a lot. We would learn new cultures and histories. Most of us learned languages, Alice and I the most, but school has never really been a challenge."

"Exactly how many languages do you speak, Edward?" Mr. Mosby asked.

"Living or all languages?" Edward asked.

"Let's say all languages," Mr. Mosby responded.

Edward thought for several minutes, then he said, "Somewhere in the neighborhood of 20."

"Really, what are some of them?"

"Well, I'm fluent in English, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, French, German, Latin, Greek, Irish, Scottish or Gaelic, Russian, Turkish, Chinese, Japanese, Hebrew, and some dialects of Arabic. I can read most Hieroglyphics, ancient Aramaic, and some Sumerian. Right now, I am working on Hindi."

"Sure you can," someone in the front of the room said, and the class started laughing. Mr. Mosby told the class to get back to work.

"How do you learn new languages?" Mr. Mosby asked.

"Mostly from the internet. I can usually find enough resources that will co-translate a language into one of the languages that I already know, then I can learn the syntax of the language. I have to hear someone speak the language, so I hire someone to speak the language for me, reading the same items that I'm studying. I eventually pick up the nuances," Edward said.

"Intriguing," Mr. Mosby said. "All right, class. The bell is about to ring. Don't forget your homework. No excuses."

After the bell rang, Edward and I walked into the hallway and outside for break. We saw Mr. Mosby walk into the teachers' lounge, shaking his head. We met up with Emmett and Rosalie who hit Edward on the shoulder. "What exactly was that for, Rosalie?" Edward asked, rubbing his shoulder.

"Nice way to remain under the radar, dunderhead," Rosalie said. "I speak twenty languages," she mocked him.

"I was just telling him the truth. I get the feeling that the teachers at this school are different. They really seem to care about us. I don't know. With all of us having advanced degrees, I guess that there is nothing that they can do, but they at least seem to want to try," Edward said.

"I get that feeling, too," Emmett said. "A couple of our teachers have seemed to care that we have been bored to tears."

"Well, like Edward said, there isn't anything that they're going to be able to do about it, so why give them any more ammunition to make us stand out any more than we already do?" Rosalie asked. "We need to just blend in like always, while staying isolated in our own little group."

"Now that was an oxymoron if I've ever heard of one," I said, laughing. The others joined in.

When the bell rang, we went quickly by our lockers to get the books that we would need between third period and lunch. We went to our classes and tried to blend in. We answered questions when they were asked of us, but we didn't offer anything for discussion.

We put our books in our lockers before lunch. When we sat down at our table, there were two open seats. The girls from this morning at gym came and sat down without asking. "Hi, Edward. Can you really speak twenty languages?" the first girl asked.

"No, three of them aren't spoken languages any more," Edward said, looking at me for help. Rosalie frowned at the two girls and harrumphed.

"I told you, Edward. This is exactly why you don't tell that kind of information in this setting," she said. Then to the girls she said, "You two were not invited to sit with us. If you would please excuse us, we were having a private conversation."

"That's okay. We won't interfere. We just wanted to talk to Edward, here. He's your brother?" the second girl said.

"No, he's my boyfriend's brother. Now, look, I said for you to please excuse us. I only ask nicely once. From this point on, I'm not going to be so nice. Get the hell up and leave us alone."

The two girls took one look at Rosalie, and then looked back at Edward. "I didn't hear Edward say that. Edward, why won't you talk to us?" the first girl said to him.

"Look, here's the thing. I'm not available. I'm here with my girlfriend." Edward said, taking my hand in his. "I don't cheat on her, and I don't enter into relationships with other girls. I'm not interested in talking with you, and my friends are just trying to let you off easy, without hurting your feelings. Bottom line is that our family doesn't want to interact with you or anyone here. We don't need to make friends here, and we don't want to make friends here. We want to be left alone. We are dealing with a lot and are under a lot of pressure at this point in our lives, and we don't need you people to complicate things any more than they already are. Understand?"

"Well, that's no attitude to have. You guys could make some good friends here," the second girl said.

"We don't need any new friends. We've got each other, and they're all that we need. Please leave us alone. You also could let your other classmates know that we don't want any contact with others as well," I said, taking Edward's face into my hands and kissing him quickly on the lips.

At that point my phone started vibrating. I looked at the number and saw that it was Alice calling. I ducked down so the lunchroom monitor couldn't see me and answered the phone. "Hey Alice. What's up?"

"Whatever you guys just did, it worked. We just became pariahs in the school. Nobody wants to socialize with us, and people are talking behind our backs about how stuck-up we are. Congratulations."

"Thank you. It was a group effort. We'll tell you about it when we get home. I've got to go. Anything new with the other situation? Any change?"

"Yes, I don't see the police investigation any more. He must not kill him at this point, but I don't see if there is still another confrontation or not."

"Well, that's a vast improvement over where we were at yesterday. I've got to go now. The cafeteria monitor is coming this way. Bye Alice." I hung up the phone and looked at my family. "Things look much better to Alice than they did yesterday. Charlie's friends won't be looking for Jasper anytime soon."

"Well, that's very good news," Edward said, and Emmett agreed.

"Why aren't you two gone yet?" Rosalie asked. "Don't make me remove you from this table." The two of them got up and left, shaking their heads. "What else did Alice say?" she asked after the girls left.

"She said that whatever we'd just done had worked. She saw us isolated and the subject of several conversations which ended up with the fact that we're the most stuck-up bunch of kids the school has ever seen."

"Way to go us," Rosalie said. "We're right where we want to be."

The bell rang, signaling the end of lunch. We headed to our lockers to get our books for the afternoon classes. Edward held my hand, and we took our seats. We were in Geometry. Again, we finished our homework while Mr. Poole taught the lesson. Edward just stared into space, and I started reading my book. Mr. Poole just stared at us, but he didn't confront us about it. English II went well; Kurt wasn't in his seat behind me. We listened, kind of, as Mrs. Willis taught her lesson, and again finished the homework assignment before class was over. I started reading during the last ten minutes of class. Mrs. Willis called me up to her desk when she saw me reading.

"Miss Hale, would you please come here," she said. I got up from my desk after marking my spot. "Bring that book with you." I turned and picked up the book and walked to her desk. When I got there, she held out her hand, and I gave her the book. She took one look at it and handed it back to me. "You are reading _The Iliad_?" I nodded. "Why?"

"Because I haven't read it before."

"Do you often read college level books? Why aren't you reading something on my reading list?"

"Yes ma'am. I've read everything on your reading list. I haven't read many of the ancient classics, except for _Oedipus Rex, Oedipus at Colonus, _and _Antigone_, and I enjoyed them immensely. I thought that I'd give Homer a go. It is really very good."

"You didn't have anything else to do during my class time, like your homework?"

"I've already finished that."

"And you understand _The Iliad_ without the Cliffnotes to assist you?

"Yes ma'am. It's not that difficult."

"Okay, then, carry on." I walked back to my seat. I gathered my book and notebook. It wouldn't be too long before the bell rang.

When it did, Edward and I walked out amidst several students talking about me "showing out" again. We held hands and walked to Anatomy and Physiology. We took our seats and took out our books. When Mrs. Mayatt came into the room, she announced that the unit exam would be on Friday. It would cover everything that the class had been going over since the beginning of the school year. She had a list of things that we could study for the exam, including the packet of worksheets that she had given out on the first day of school. Edward raised his hand and asked if she would give Alice, me, and him a copy of the packet. She looked at the two of us like we were foreigners, then she realized that we weren't here at the beginning of the year. She apologized and went to her file cabinet and got three copies of the information. It was a huge set of papers. She gave us both one, and a third to take home to Alice. Then she said that she would only score us on the part of the exam that we'd been here for. Edward told her that it wouldn't be necessary, that we could take the exam with the rest of the class. She just looked at him with surprise in her eyes. The rest of the class was spent reviewing. Edward and I spent the rest of the class time filling out the worksheets. If I ran into a problem, I looked it up in the book. If that didn't help, I asked Edward about it in vampire volume. He was able to explain everything to my satisfaction. We were over three quarters done with the packet by the end of the period.

The next class was driver's education. Today, we were staying at the school. We were only able to drive every third day. We were allowed to work on anything, so we finished the A&P worksheet. I read the A&P book, knowing that my vampire enhanced photographic memory would work for the comprehensive unit exam. I had almost finished reading all of the chapters when the bell rang, signaling the end of the day.


	21. Chapter 21

**Stephenie Meyers owns it all.**

**Chapter 21 – Love Lost**

When we got home, Jasper was on the phone with Jenks. The house closing had just been finished. The attorney that he had hired locally to handle the details was overnighting him the paperwork, and as soon as he got it, he would be overnighting it to us. That meant that Charlie could move into his house tomorrow. I was sure that that wasn't the reason why fury was written all over his face, and you could practically see the steam coming out of his ears. Jenks had also said that the divorce paperwork was being held up. Sue was trying to contest the divorce, saying that Charlie couldn't disclose the real reason that there were irreconcilable differences. Jasper took one look at Charlie and told Jenks to "convince her." Then he hung up the phone.

I went to Charlie and put my arm around his shoulder, pulling him away from everyone else. "Dad, don't worry about it. We'll get you moved into your home tomorrow. You'll be able to have some privacy, finally, and our attorney will take care of things in Forks. He can be very convincing when he needs to be."

"Bells, I just want that chapter of my life to be over with. I'm applying for the police department tomorrow. Did I tell you that?"

"No, Dad. You didn't. What are you going to put on the application as far as experience goes?"

"Bella, Carlisle has coached me well. I was the Chief of Police in Anchorage, Alaska for the past 12 years, working the streets for the 5 years before that. All reference material will go to the P.O. Box that is forwarded to Jenks."

"Very good, Dad. You catch on quickly."

"Don't worry. I'm not about to give you guys away. I know how important it is that you fully disappear when you leave a place. I'll protect you with my life, baby."

"I love you, too, Dad," I said reaching for him and giving him a hug, not too tight. He hugged me back. Charlie has gotten much more affectionate since he has been living with us.

We gave Alice her homework and told her about the unit exam for A&P. She didn't seem worried about it, and she sat down and worked through the packet of material without any problems. She finished the rest of her homework quickly. Then we all went out for a hunt together. We ran for miles, just enjoying the wind blowing through our hair. When we ran across deer, we avoided them. We had all had enough deer to last a lifetime. We were looking for something larger, more predatory. Edward managed to find a den of bobcats which he enjoyed immensely. Alice found a den of coyote which she enjoyed. Rosalie and Emmett shared a couple of black bears, and that left Jasper and me. Try as we might, neither of us could find anything that smelled the least bit appetizing. The closer that we got to Canada, the more that I found a delicious odor that I'd never smelled before. I looked at Jasper and saw that he was licking his lips as well. We honed in on the scent and went into tracking mode. The others just let us go. We trailed the animals over several miles until we happened upon a den. There we found a family of timber wolves. We pounced, each taking down two of them. I fed like there was no tomorrow. The blood called to me. It was so good. I found myself licking my lips when I was finished with the two that I had brought down. I was fully satisfied with the amount that I had drank, but I wanted more. I looked at Jasper, and he was leaning back with a grin on his face.

"Was that as good for you as it was for me?" I asked him.

"Bella, that was the best that I've had since I drank from a human," he said. "I don't know why their blood called to me that way, but it was wonderful."

"I'm so full, but I want more," I told him.

"I know what you mean," he said. "but we need to save them so that we can come back and get more another time. We don't want to kill off the species."

"You're right. Help me get rid of these carcasses?" He got up and together we buried the wolf carcasses. Then we headed back to the others.

"Well, what did you two find. You have shit-eating grins on your faces," Emmett said.

"Timber wolves," Jasper said. "They were delectable."

"Bella, you drank from a wolf? You swore that you'd never taste a wolf," Edward said.

"I couldn't help it. They smelled so good! Oh My God! I never thought that I'd come across something that would call to me that way!" I said.

"Humans don't call to you that way?" Alice asked.

"No, not at all. They don't even come close," I said, laughing. "I guess that it is a good thing that I don't go to school with timber wolves, isn't it." The others laughed with me. "Let's hope that there isn't ever a show and tell about wolves."

We all headed back to the house. We took our time and got home just as Carlisle was pulling into the driveway. Alice told us that the next day was going to be sunny, so we all resigned ourselves to being around the house. I pulled up one of the more comfortable chairs and started reading. About midnight, Edward asked me if I wanted to work on my Spanish some, so we did that until sundown the next day when we went to our P.O. Box and got Charlie's keys to the new house. We spent the next several hours unloading his two U-hauls of furniture and arranging his new house. We finished that around 3 a.m. Charlie had already gone to bed back at our house, calling it quits at midnight. Who could blame him? We all wished that we could sleep, so we weren't denying him any that he could get at all. After his house was finished, we went back to ours, and did our own thing until sunrise.

Carlisle wrote the five of us notes to get back into school. Then when it was time, we piled into our cars and made the already tedious trip to the concrete jungle. We went to gym, and after we all dressed our, we took our places on the dodgeball court. This was the one aspect of our day when we actually did have fun. Mr. Mitchell decided to liven things up a little bit. He added two more balls, meaning that we'd have to keep up with four balls now instead of just two. It made it all the more fun. We were ducking and dodging, falling to the floor and jumping. No matter how hard they tried, they just couldn't seem to hit one of us. It still came down to the six of us, but now there were four balls for us to play with. The decision was made among us to throw the balls just a little harder than we were throwing them before, yet still not hard enough for them to disappear to the regular eye, of course. They decided to pick on me first; Emmett shouting, "Bella." All four balls came flying towards me. I could tell that I could avoid three of them easily by falling to the floor, but the fourth one was going to be tricky. I would have to roll at the same time to my left and forward, but I would come close to going out of bounds. At the last second, I dive rolled to my left, hitting the floor harder than I wanted to, making a crashing sound and leaving a small dent in the floor. I scrambled back up quickly, but unfortunately, my shield had decided to go off. The last ball decided to bounce off of my shield. Because my back was to the bleachers, I think that everyone thought that I got hit. They started clapping, anyway. My siblings had a horrific look on their faces. I just went to the sidelines and took a seat. Mr. Mitchell had a funny look on his face; he was on the other side of the gym, and I'm pretty sure that he saw the ball miss me and bounce away anyway. He didn't say anything, though. My siblings, eventually got their acts together and ran after the balls. They finished with the game with Alice and Edward left. Neither of them could get the other one out. It ended in a draw, just like most of their battles do.

The rest of the morning went off without a hitch. At break, we held our breath that Kurt wouldn't approach Jasper, and we were relieved when he didn't. We were relieved when he didn't at lunch either. We went to English II and took our assigned seats, with me sitting in front of Kurt. We hadn't had any problems with him so far in the day. I guess that we had gotten complacent. He immediately started bugging me. He was whispering things in my ear. He was touching my hair. I would pull away from him and scoot my chair forward, but he just scooted his forward as well. I could tell that Edward was about to interrupt class and give him a piece of his mind, when Mrs. Willis went to the side of the classroom to the cabinets. She was getting something out from under one of them when my vampire hearing went on alert. I could hear the soft warning of a rattle. I immediately looked at Edward and Alice. They were on alert as well. Then, Mrs. Willis screamed and jumped back. Edward jumped out of his seat and told Alice to run get Jasper. He rushed to her and slammed the door shut. He pulled her away from the door and told everybody who was sitting by the cabinets to move away from them and get near the wall. I was by him while he looked at her hand. She definitely had two well spaced puncture marks. They were about two centimeters apart, right about three quarters of an inch. She was already starting to swell. He took a red pen and drew a line around the redness on her hand. The people beside the cabinets weren't moving very fast, and I told them to move, that there was a snake in the cabinets. He then told me to call Carlisle and tell him to get Crofab ready..

I dialed Carlisle's direct number. He answered, and I said, "Carlisle, are you in the ER today?"

"Yes, why?"

"One of our teachers just got snake bit. She is already swelling with erythema. It has only been three minutes. Edward says that you need Crofab and lots of it. We're calling Paramedics."

"Okay, we don't have Crofab here, but we'll arrange transfer. Get her here ASAP."

"Yes sir. Edward, they don't stock Crofab, but they're arranging her transfer as we're speaking."

All of the screams had alerted the teacher from across the hall. Mr. Nelson came into the room. "What the hell is going on in here?"

"Mrs. Willis has been snake bit," Edward said, walking her to her seat, keeping her hand elevated above her heart. When it had been five minutes, he drew another red line around the redness.

At that point, Jasper came in with Alice. "Alice told me. Alice, go to the car and get me a cloth bag. Then I'm going to need a long stick. He looked at me and asked me, "Where is it?" I pointed to the cabinet that she was reaching into. He started moving desks away from the area so that he would have room to work. When Alice came back into the room with the bag and the stick, he looked around the room. "Every one get back." Then he went to the cabinet and opened the door. He took the flashlight that Alice handed him and asked me to hold it for him. I shined it to where he was pointing. It shone on numerous sets of eyes. "There is a bed of them. I'll try to get them one at a time." He took the stick and reached it into the cabinet. He pulled it forward and everyone in the room could hear the rattle this time. When he yanked it out of the cabinet, it brought with it a three foot rattlesnake. There were several screams. He used the stick to get control of the snake, then he pinned down it's head. He reached down and took it by the head, picking it up. He went to the bag that Alice held, and dropped it into the bag. Alice immediately twisted the bag, holding it above the twist. Then he opened the door again. I shined the light back into the bed again. He took the stick and brought out another snake, this time a little smaller. He again worked with it until he could get it's head pinned. Then he reached down and picked it up, again depositing it in the bag that Alice held.

"What the hell is going on in this room?" Mr. Vance asked as he walked in.

"There is a bed of snakes in that cabinet," Mr. Nelson said. "Mrs. Willis has been bitten. We're waiting on the ambulance to come and get her."

"May I ask what Mr. Hale is doing here instead of in his classroom?" Mr. Vance asked.

"He seems to be catching the snakes, sir," Mr. Nelson said.

"He is doing what?" Mr. Vance cried. "We can't allow him to do that! He might be hurt! Young man, go back to your classroom, immediately."

"No sir. I know snakes. I'm going to finish getting these. I doubt that you have another snake handler in town, sir," Jasper said. "Now, please back up." He opened the door again, and I shined the flashlight for him. He hooked another snake and pulled it out. He almost immediately got this one pinned and picked it up. He put it into the bag. Then he went back into the cabinet. There were at least four left. He hooked another one, but this time, two came out with the stick. He pushed Alice and me back, even though they couldn't have hurt us. Then he scooped one and grabbed it by the tail, throwing it back into the cabinet, before he caught the second one trying to make a getaway. He coolly brought it back into his working area where he pinned it, picked it up, and put it into the bag.

"What kind of snakes are those?" Mr. Nelson asked.

"Timber rattlers. They are an endangered species. We can't kill them. I'll go into the woods and release them after school," Jasper said. He very carefully opened the door, expecting the other snake to be right at the entrance, and it was. As soon as the door was opened, it struck at him, missing him by several inches. It plopped out onto the floor. He had to play around with this one for several minutes because it was worked up and mad. Eventually, he got it pinned. He put it into the bag.

By this time, the ambulance had arrived. They brought the stretcher into the room and placed Mrs. Willis onto it. Edward had marked the increments of the swelling and redness by five minute increments. The paramedics tried to get IV access, but were unable to do so. I saw Jasper starting to lose it because of the smell of blood from their misses. It was strong to me as well. "Edward, they need to get her to the hospital. Carlisle can get the blasted IV," I said out loud, and then in vampire volume, I added, "and Jasper and I aren't liking the smell of that blood very much. They need to leave."

"She's right. Get her to the hospital. You can try for the IV en route. My Dad is waiting on her to transfer her out," Edward said.

I walked up to Jasper and put my arm around him. "Do you want to walk outside with me for a second? I need a breath of fresh air."

He looked at me, his eyes glazed over, and said, "Yeah, I do. Let's go. Nobody open those doors. There are at least three more in there. I'm going outside for just a little bit. I need to calm my nerves." I took him by the hand, and we walked by the paramedics and through the door. We walked to the end of the hall and outside into the fresh air. I led him around to the side of the building where nobody could see us or hear us, well, except for our siblings of course.

"You did good in there, Jazz. You held it together very well," I said, still holding his hand.

"I couldn't have for much longer. The smell was getting to me. It was ten times as good to me as the timber wolves were. I wanted to go over and suck her dry, Bella. I wanted to kill her."

"But you didn't. You held it together. You kept your cool, and there was actual blood, not just within her veins, but she was actually bleeding. You did great, Jazz. I'm so proud of you." I reached up and gave him a huge hug. "We won't go back in until they leave with her." So we waited. We both took big breaths of fresh air. When they finally wheeled her out and put her into the ambulance, we got up and walked back into the building. Jasper and I walked into the classroom. Edward and Alice gave us both questioning looks, and we both smiled at them.

Jasper got his stick which he had propped against the wall when we left and went back to the cabinets. He opened the door, and I shined the light into the bed of snakes. He hooked one after another, and soon the bed was cleared. Then he and I made sure to clear all of the other cabinets in the room. One snake had managed to go down two cabinets, and Jasper cleared that one out as well. Once the cabinets were cleared, Mr. Vance came up to Jasper and thanked him. Jasper told him that it wasn't any problem, that he'd been handling snakes since he was a little boy. He then took the bag away from Alice and secured the top. He took it outside into the cold weather where it would slow the snakes' metabolism so that it would be easier to return them to nature this afternoon.

The bell had rung while we were still wrangling the snakes, so we were late for Anatomy and Physiology. We asked Mr. Vance if he would give us a tardy slip for our next class, and he said that he would walk us there himself. We thanked him, and when we opened the door for A&P, Mrs. Mayatt started to say something about our being late for class. Mr. Vance told her about the situation in Mrs. Willis' room and that we'd helped to clear out the snakes. He told her to give us excused tardies. She nodded her head and gave us our tests. We took our seats and began to work them. We finished them with time to spare, handing them in before anyone else in the class did. She asked us if we were sure that we didn't want to go over them again, and we all said that we were confident that we didn't. She took them and graded them. We all had perfect papers. When the bell rang, she called us to the front of the room. "How did you all do that?" she asked.

"Do what?" Alice asked.

"Have perfect papers," she answered.

"We studied," Edward answered.

"Did you cheat?" she asked.

"Only if studying together is considered cheating," I said. "We've been study partners for years."

"How did you come from such an adrenaline inducing activity as seeing your teacher snake bit and helping capturing a bed full of rattlesnakes and calmly take a unit test, most of which you weren't present for, and still score perfect papers?" she asked.

"Well, first of all, when you are in an emergency situation, first take your own pulse. If it is higher than your patient's, take a step back and regroup. Our father is a doctor. We've been in emergency situations in the past several times. He taught us to always be calm when the situation around us was chaotic. So, to have Mrs. Willis injured wasn't traumatic for us. We just stepped up and performed basic wilderness first aid. We've been campers all of our lives. As far as Jasper catching the snakes. He has been doing that all of his life, since he was a little boy. He's never been bitten. He knows what he's doing. If it had been anybody else, we might have been nervous, but when you trust the person that you're helping, you don't have an adrenaline rush about it. So, no, we weren't on any kind of adrenaline rush when we came into your class today. As far as the unit test goes, we studied. If you prepare for a test, there is no reason to be frightened of it," Edward said.

"I see. So you're saying that you felt no anxiety at all during the whole event?" Mrs. Mayatt asked.

"No, I didn't say that. I felt anxiety for her when Carlisle said that the local hospital didn't stock Crofab. She had a severe envenomation, and she really needs the antivenin as soon as they can get it to her. It definitely wasn't a dry bite like I was hoping that it was," Edward said.

"Who is Carlisle?" Mrs. Mayatt asked.

"Our adopted father. He is a surgeon and works at the local ER," Edward said.

"You said that your father is a doctor," Mrs. Mayatt said.

"Our fathers' were doctors. Ours, the Hale's, and Carlisle, worked together where we grew up. We were all neighbors. Our father and the Hale's father were killed coming back from a conference four months ago. Carlisle adopted us all," Edward said. "Now, if you don't have any more questions, we need to get to our last class."

"Sure, go ahead," Mrs. Mayatt said. Edward put his arm around my shoulder and the three of us walked out of her room. We headed towards the driver's ed classroom. Today was our day to drive. We went to the driver's ed car and piled in. We took our turns and returned to school.

When we returned to school, we were a few minutes late. We saw a group of boys gathered around where Jasper had left the snakes. We flew out of the car and ran over to where they were gathered. Of course, Kurt was in the middle of the crowd. He had the bag and was starting to untie the knot in the top of the bag. Just at that moment, Jasper was coming out of the doors of the school. When he saw what was happening, he took off running for the boys as well. Edward, being the fastest of us, got there first. He tackled Kurt, knocking the bag out of his hands. Alice got there next, throwing three of the boys out of the way as the bag hit the ground, open. I got there about the same time as Jasper. One of the snakes was about to strike at one of the boys. I pushed him out of the way as Jasper grabbed at the snake, picking up the bag at the same time. Emmett and Rosalie were there by now, and Jasper threw the bag at Emmett who caught it and twisted it so no more would escape. Rosalie threw the remaining boys out of the snakes' range. The one that Jasper had grabbed during the strike had turned on him and was trying to strike at him. He tossed it to the ground and yelled at Alice to bring him a stick. The other two were trying to get away. He ran to them, one at a time, and grabbing them by the tails, he tossed them back into a kind of central area. Alice ran around to the front of the school where she'd left his stick from earlier and grabbed it, throwing it to Jasper. He caught it and separating one from the others, pinned it and picked it up. He put it in the bag that Emmett opened for him, then he went back and got the other two. When he was finished, he tied the bag again, this time making sure that Emmett had it, then he went over to where Edward had Kurt by the collar.

"What were you thinking? Were you trying to get yourself killed? Were you trying to get your buddies killed? Those things kill people! They don't just play around! They're not just toys that you can play with! You're out of your mind! If you have a death wish, there's many easier ways to commit suicide than to play with poisonous snakes," Jasper yelled, then he threw Kurt to the ground. The crowd around him parted as he turned and walked away, taking the bag out of Emmett's hands. We followed him to the car. He put the bag into the trunk of the Porsche, and we climbed into the car. He peeled out of the school parking lot and sped towards home.

"Slow down," Alice and Edward screamed together, but it was too late. Blue lights came on in the rear view mirror blocks from the school. Jasper swore and pulled over.

He took several deep breaths trying to calm himself. It didn't work. He was still furious and breathing hard when the officer approached the car. To our chagrin, Charlie was with him, a frown on his face. "Where's the fire, young man?" the officer asked. "Why did you feel it was necessary to leave the school grounds like that?"

He took several deep breaths, but still couldn't talk calmly. Edward leaned over. "We just had a confrontation with a student who tried to let out a bag of rattlesnakes in a crowd of people. Jasper here had to catch them before they could hurt someone. He's a little tense right now."

"Yeah, you think that I was born yesterday? Rattlesnakes aren't out in this weather, young man," the officer said.

"There was a bed of them in the cabinets of one of the classrooms. Out teacher was bitten. Jasper was the one who caught all of them. He put them in a tied bag outside to decrease their metabolism so that we could release them this afternoon, and one of the other students thought that it would be funny to release them into a crowd of students on school grounds. Jasper had to recatch three of them," Edward said.

"So, where are these rattlesnakes now," the officer asked.

"In the trunk," Jasper said, calming down, finally.

"Show me," the officer said. Jasper got out of the car, taking the keys, and opened the trunk. Charlie stood well back, and the other officer came towards Jasper as he picked up the bag.

"Do you want to see the actual snakes?" Jasper asked. The officer nodded. Jasper opened the tie, and held the bag open so that the officer could peer inside. We all laughed, including Charlie, when the officer jumped about two feet in the air and three feet backwards. "Seen enough?" Jasper asked, and the officer nodded. Jasper retied the knot and placed the bag back into the trunk, closing it afterwards. He went back around and got back into the driver's seat.

The other officer came back to the driver's window and asked, "You caught those single handedly?"

"No, Alice and Bella helped me. Ali held the bag, and Bella held the flashlight."

"And what did you do, young man?" the officer asked.

"I treated Mrs. Willis until the paramedics arrived," Edward said.

"Charlie, do you believe this? This must be a strange day for you, being your first day on the job and all," the first officer said.

"No, Frank. This is old hat for me. The kids in my old town were just like these here. You never knew what they'd come up with. In fact, these kids are just like my daughter, her boyfriend, and her best friends. I miss them a lot. I hope to see them soon," Charlie said with a big grin on his face.

"Well, what would you do? Would you ticket them?" the first officer asked.

"Nope. From what they said, I sure wouldn't. I think that the guy that let out the snakes is lucky to still be alive, and if Jasper here was able to catch the snakes again and save all of those school kids from being bitten, we kind of owe him one. Don't cha think?" Charlie said.

"Well, when you put it that way, I agree. Now, don't let me catch you driving like that again, young man. I won't be so nice next time," the first officer said.

"Yes sir," Jasper said, starting the car. The police went back to their car and drove away, and Jasper followed.

When we pulled into our driveway, I pulled out my phone and dialed Charlie's number. He answered. "Are you going to get into trouble if I talk to you?"

"Nope. I just can't talk long," Charlie said. "They're pretty laid back here."

"We just wanted to thank you for what you did for Jasper."

"No problem. I meant everything when I said it. I love you."

"I love you too, Dad. Bye."

"Bye."  
I hung up the phone and we went inside. Emmett immediately accosted Jasper about being pulled over. "Did you get a ticket? Huh?"

"No, Emmett. I did not get a ticket. The snakes scared him enough that he decided not to give me a ticket," Jasper said.

"I can't believe that you got pulled over. That's a first for us! And you had both the mind reader and the psychic in the car with you. Amazing," Emmett went on.

"Just drop it, okay Emmett," Jasper said.

"Oh, No! This is too good to just drop. Jasper got pulled over, Jasper got pulled over, Jasper got pulled over," Emmett repeated in a sing song voice.

Jasper leaped and went for Emmett's throat. He latched his teeth into the back of Emmett's neck and ripped out a large piece of his neck and shoulder slinging it onto the floor. Emmett's scream echoed though the house. Edward and Alice were immediately on Jasper, trying to pull him away from Emmett, but he was like a madman. He sank his teeth into Emmett's neck again, twisting his head back and forth, ripping another large chunk from Emmett's shoulder. This time, as he leaned to spit the flesh onto the floor, Edward got enough leverage to sever Jasper's hold on Emmett's body. He and Alice managed to pull get Jasper to the floor, and I helped them to pin him down. Alice was trying to call out to Jasper to get his attention, but nothing that she said was getting through to him. He was face down on the floor, and I leaned over and whispered into his ear, "Jasper, please calm down. You're scaring me." He suddenly quit fighting and laid still. I leaned over and whispered into his ear again. "Thank you, Jasper. That's better." I got off of his back. I looked at Edward and with my eyes, told him to let him go. Alice followed suit. Jasper slowly got up. He turned around and looked at Emmett, then he ran out of the house and into the woods. "Aren't you going to follow him?" I asked Alice.

"No. When he gets like this, he needs to be alone," she said. I looked around at the others in the room. No one made a move to follow him. "Aren't any of you going to go after him?"

"No, Bella. He'll eventually come back. In a few days or a few weeks, when he's worked it out for himself, he'll be back," Edward said.

"That's bullshit," I said, and I took off after Jasper. With my newborn speed, it wasn't long before I had caught up with him. I just let him run ahead of me, following about a hundred yards behind him.

When he finally stopped, sometime in the wee hours of the morning, I stopped as well. I didn't approach him; I just waited. "Why are you here?" he asked me.

"I thought that you might need a friend," I answered.

"I don't deserve a friend," he stated, "not after what I just did."

"Bullshit! You are my friend, and you don't stop being my friend just because you make a mistake," I told him. I walked up a little closer to him. "If that were the way it worked, then I wouldn't have any friends at all, because I make a lot of mistakes."

"No, you don't, Bella. You're a good person. Not like me. I have this evil built into my core. When I lose it, the evil comes to the surface. I hurt the people that I love, Bella. The others know this. That's why they let me go. That's why they don't follow me anymore. They know that the evil is ever present, and that any moment, they could be next. They aren't willing to take the chance around me anymore, Bella, and you shouldn't either."

"That's not true. Alice loves you. The whole family loves you, except maybe for Rosalie, but she doesn't love anyone except for herself. I trust you with my heart, Jasper. I know that you won't hurt me. They think that you need time alone to get yourself back together. They don't think that they need to avoid you because you are going to hurt them. That is the last thing that they are thinking. If they were thinking that, do you really think that they would have let me follow you?" I walked another few steps towards him, close enough that I could reach out and take one of his hands into mine. "I don't want to intrude on your quiet time if that is what you need right now, but if you will let me, I want to be here for you as your friend. I want to hold you close and tell you that it is going to be okay, that everyone is going to forgive you for your mistake." I walked around in front of him and took his other hand into mine. I looked up into his face. His eyes were closed tight. His jaws were clenched. I took his arms and pulled them around my waist and then wrapped mine around his back, pulling him closer to me. I rested my head against his chest.

After several minutes, I felt him begin to sob. It was as if a dam had burst. He was shaking with his cries, and I pulled him closer to me. I rubbed his back and just held him close until his anguish had worked its way out of his system. As his crying subsided, I pulled him to a fallen tree and sat him down. I sat down next to him, pulling his head into my lap. As I ran my fingers through his hair, I asked him if he wanted to talk about it. At first, he didn't say anything, but after a little while, he started talking about his feelings about what had happened when he caught Kurt opening the bag at school. He said that he knew for sure that one of the kids was going to be bitten. He had taken a strike on the arm from the first snake, the one that was aiming at that kid that I had pushed out of the way, and though it hadn't hurt him in any way, shape, or fashion, it had angered him to no ends. He had never taken a strike before in his life, and if he hadn't jumped in, that boy would have been in a world of hurt, all because of Kurt. It all came back to Kurt again. He was enraged because of the strike and Kurt, and then when Emmett just kept on pushing, he just lost it. He told me a lot more about his life with Maria than I had ever known, how he'd been responsible for "recruiting" the newborns, and training them, and then when their newborn year was up, "disposing" of them. He told me that he'd changed near one thousand people into vampires and had killed approximately three thousand or more vampires in his day. He had killed at least one thousand people, not including those that he'd changed. It took all that I was not to shudder when he was telling me this. I just kept running my fingers through his hair.

At daybreak, he stood up, pulling me up with him. We started walking around the area, hand in hand. He was quiet, thinking. I didn't interrupt. We walked until we found a beautiful lake fed by an equally beautiful waterfall. There weren't any houses surrounding the lake that we could see, and Jasper asked if I wanted to go swimming. It sounded good to me, so I stripped down to my underwear and him to his boxers. We dove into the lake and swam around enjoying the freedom that the swimming allowed. It was a crystal clear lake; we could see all the way to the bottom. We dove to its depths only to surface like a dolphin would, breaking the water to dive again. Occasionally, the sun would break through the clouds, making our skin sparkle against the water. We would race, and we would float. But when the sun started down, we knew that our time in the water was ending. We slowly swam back to the bank where our clothes were and climbed out of the water where we sat in the dying rays of the sun to dry off. As our bodies soaked up the final rays of the day, Jasper reached over and took my hand into his. He brought it to his lips and kissed it. I was just a little bit stunned. I looked over at him, and he had a grin on his face. "Thank you for today, Bella. It means so much to me that you have allowed me to spend this time with you. I don't remember when I've had a more carefree day."

"Me too, Jazz," I said. "Today was magnificent." He smiled, and I smiled back. Then he lifted one hand and brought it to my face. He caressed my cheek. His hand felt so warm against my cheek, and without thinking about it, I turned my face into his hand. He brought his other hand up to take my head into his caress, and to pull me to him. He leaned into me and placed a gentle kiss on my lips. I closed my eyes, and God help me, I kissed him back. I wrapped my hands around his neck, and I pulled him closer, opening my mouth to allow him entrance, his tongue and mine, touching, sending shivers down my spine, beginning to dance and weave their way around each other.

Soon we were on our knees, grasping at each other, pulling each other as close as we could get, our kissing passionate, awakening other feelings within our cores, feelings that demanded to be satisfied. I knew that what we were doing was wrong, on so many levels, but my body was telling me that it didn't care. Jasper was kissing me on my neck, and my head was thrown back in ecstasy. I wanted more of him, and I wanted him now. "Jasper, more," I panted, reaching around my back to unclasp my bra and allowing it to fall to the ground between us. He lowered his head and took one of my breasts into him mouth, tonguing my nipple until it was pebbled and erect. Then he went to the other one, sucking and nibbling on it until it matched its sister.

"Um, Bella, you are so divine," he said as he nuzzled between my breasts, licking one then blowing his cool breath on the nipple to keep it erect. Then he laid me down on the bank of the lake and leaned over me, bringing his mouth back to mine. He took his hand and drew small circles on my stomach, working his way down to where my panties hid my core. "I'm so hard for you," he said, pushing himself into my thigh. I groaned and rubbed myself against him.

"Jasper, I want you inside me," I said, pulling him over on top of me. I kissed him again, and lifted up my bottom as I felt him pulling my panties down with his hands. I grabbed his boxers and pushed them down. Then I felt him, hard and firm, at my entrance. He was just holding there, giving me a chance to change my mind.

"Are you sure, Bella? There won't be any going back if we do this," he said.

"Are you sure, Jasper?"

"I want you, Bella, right here and now." I lifted up my hips, sliding him into me. Once he knew my decision, he thrust into me with a passion. We came together like a force of nature, slamming together again and again, neither of us holding back. We met each other at the peaks of out thrusts, taking each other as deep as we could get, our bodies crashing together, almost sounding like cymbals when they met each other. We neared our peaks, our breaths coming in heavy gasps. Our bodies were moving together at inhuman speeds. Then I screamed his name as I came, my moisture spilling over him and my insides clenching him in waves. It was enough to send him over, and he entered me one last time, shooting his warm juices as far into me as they could go. When he withdrew for the final time, we laid together, spent, neither of us talking.

After about thirty minutes, I got up and walked back into the lake. I tried to wash off as much of Jasper's smell from my body as I could. I realized what I'd done, and what it meant. I'd cheated on Edward with his brother. I had no tears, and I didn't deserve to have tears even if I could have them. Jasper had given me plenty of opportunities to back out, and I had chosen to go forward. I had no one to blame but myself. After a few minutes, I felt Jasper come into the water behind me. He put his hands onto my shoulders and turned me around to face him. He picked up my face with his finger, and he leaned down to kiss me. I turned my head, and his kiss landed on my cheek. "I'm so sorry, Bella. I should have stopped us," he said.

"No, I'm the one who pushed us forward. It wasn't your fault at all, Jasper. Don't blame yourself. This was my mistake," I said.

"No, Bella. I kissed you. That started the whole thing. I'll take the blame. I'll tell Edward that it was my fault, that I forced you."

"The hell you will! Jasper, I'm a big girl. I'm big enough to live with my own mistakes. Don't think that I didn't love making love to you. I did. Oh, God how much I loved making love to you, but it was wrong. We're both married. We both just cheated on our spouses. I don't know about you, but this is the first time that I've ever cheated on my husband. I feel kinda crappy about it."

"Bella, honestly, this isn't the first time that I've cheated on Alice, and she has cheated on me before as well. We don't have an open marriage, but we aren't monogamous either."

"So, I'm just another notch on your belt, then?" I asked, turning back around and covering my breasts with my arms.

"No, Bella. You could never be a notch in my belt. I love you, and I have ever since Edward brought you home the first time. I love you more than time itself. I know that I'm going to have to leave the family now, after today. After you know how I feel about you, I won't be able to live in the same house as you and Edward, with the two of you in love the way you are. I'll just use the fight with Emmett as the excuse to leave. Alice has probably seen what has happened and probably won't want to come with me, so I'll be in touch. I love you, Bella," Jasper said, and he turned and walked to the side of the lake. He picked up his clothes and started running.

"No, Jasper, don't go!" I yelled, but he didn't stop running. I went to the side of the lake to get my clothes, but he had thrown them, and I had to find them. I put them on and started to follow him, but then I stopped. I thought about what he had said, and then I thought about Edward. He wouldn't be able to live with Jasper in the house if he took me back. I had to decide between my husband and my lover. When I put it to myself that way, I knew that there was no choice. I would choose Edward any day.


	22. Chapter 22

**Stephenie Meyers owns it all.**

**Chapter 22 – The Fallout**

I ran most of the way back to the house. When I got to within voice distance, I called out for Edward to come outside. When he did, I started to run away again. He followed me for several miles into the woods. I wanted to get us several miles past where the hearing point for the house was before I had my talk with him. When I finally stopped running and sat down, he came up to me and sat down as well. I didn't say anything for several minutes, and neither did he. I was looking down at the ground, the whole time. Finally, I looked up at him, staring him in the eye.

"Did Alice have any visions while I was gone?" I asked.

"Yes, she did. She said that Jasper isn't coming back this time," he said.

"Is that all that she said?"

"Yes."

"Did you see her vision with her?"

"No. She's kept me blocked since she had the vision."

"Okay. I need to talk to you. Something happened while I was away. Something between Jasper and me." I looked at him. He had his eyes closed, and he took a deep breath.

"Go on," he said.

"Jasper and I, um,..., Okay, Jasper and I made love," I said.

Edward squeezed his eyes shut and held his breath. He brought his hands into his hair and pulled it. Then he let out a cry, a scream of agony. I wanted to go to him and take him into my arms, to try and make it all better for him, but I was the one who caused all of his anguish. I wasn't the one who could fix it, if that person even existed.

After a couple of hours of his silence, he finally looked up and said, "Do you love him?"

Why not start off with the question of the century? "Yes, in a way I do. I love him in a special way that is his and his alone. But I'm in love with you. I love you with all of my heart. I live for you. You complete me in a way that he doesn't. You are my soul mate, and given a choice between him and you, I choose you, if you'll have me."

He looked down at the ground again, saying nothing. I'd never felt so scared in my life. Was he going to give me another chance to be a good wife? Or was he going to toss me to the wind? I didn't deserve another chance, and I knew it. I had broken my wedding vows, and Edward was raised in the Victorian Age, the age of chastity and faithfulness. What I had done went against everything that he was raised to believe in. I could see the internal struggle that he was fighting.

He looked up at me again. "Not yet. I can't yet. I don't know when, but not yet. I'm sorry." He got up and ran towards the house. I just stayed there, sitting under the tree. I was still sitting there when Sunday morning came, and when the sun set again on Sunday night.

When the sun rose Monday morning, I heard footsteps approaching me. I never looked up. Someone sat down beside me and put their arm around my shoulder. "You need to come inside, Bella," Esme said. "You aren't doing yourself any good by staying out here. Your Dad is worried about you."

"I can't come in. I'm so ashamed of myself. I hurt Edward, and I hurt Alice. I don't deserve to be a part of your family anymore," I told her.

"Do you want to tell me what happened?" Esme asked.

"Didn't they tell you?" I asked her.

"No, Edward hasn't said a word to anyone since he came back from talking to you. He has been locked in your room and hasn't come out of it. Alice has tried to talk to him, but he won't let her in. She has otherwise been in her room. The only thing that she has said is that Jasper won't be coming back this time," Esme said. "The rest of us figure that something happened between the two of you, we just don't know what." I hung my head. "It can't be that bad, Bella. I can't believe that whatever happened is enough to destroy this family."

"Oh, Esme, it is. I've destroyed Edward. I've betrayed Alice. I can't ever come back," I said.

"Bella, there isn't anything that our family can't forgive."

"This isn't forgivable, Esme. Edward will never forgive me. Jasper and I made love. I cheated on Edward. I cheated on Alice. I can't ever fix it."

Esme leaned over and pulled me into her. "I had a feeling that is what happened. I've seen the two of you grow closer over the past few months. You have had a calming influence on Jasper when others haven't. I've seen the way that he's looked at you. Bella, loving him isn't the end of the world. Edward will forgive you; he loves you. Alice will forgive you. Right now, let's go and get you a shower. You need to go to school. I'll drive you if you want me to. Now, come on. Come with me."

She stood up and held out her hand. I took her hand, and she pulled me up. I followed her back to the house. When she led me into the house, the others were in the den, Edward standing by the fire place, and Alice standing by the kitchen. They both just stared at me, and I turned to leave. Esme held my hand tighter, and she pulled me up the stairs. She took me to her room and pushed me into her bathroom. "Shower," she said. She returned a minute later with my shampoo and body wash. It felt really good to wash my hair and body. When I got out of the shower and dried off, she came into the bathroom with my brush and some clean clothes for me. As I got dressed, she brushed out my hair. It felt good for her to take care of me. When I was ready, she pulled me into her arms and said, "I love you Bella. No matter what mistakes you have made. I want you to think about it this way. Your mistake is no worse than Edward's leaving you for five years."

"Yes, it was, Esme. When he left, he hadn't committed to me for the rest of eternity. We're married. I've committed to him, and I broke that promise. It's totally different, Esme," I said.

"Come on, Bella. Let's get you to school," Esme said. We walked downstairs. I wasn't shocked to see that the others had left me, but Esme seemed to be a little peeved. We went and got into the Cadillac. She drove me to the school and dropped me off. Then she headed towards the hospital. I walked into the gym. I went into the locker room to change for class. Alice and Rose just stared at me. I just changed and went out onto the court. I didn't care about playing today, so the first time that a ball came anywhere near me, I jumped in front of it. I went to the sideline and sat down. I put my head down onto my knees. Alice and Edward didn't waste any time getting out either. They went to sit down as far from me as they could get. Emmett and Rose ended up being the last two, and they had fun trying to hit each other until Coach Mitchell called an end of class. I went into the locker room to change, and again, Alice and Rose wouldn't even look at me. When I left the locker room, Edward and Emmett gathered with Alice and Rose. I just walked away, standing near the door.

When the bell rang, I went to my locker and got my books. I went to class, and sat in my usual seat. I worked my homework, and then just sat there, hoping beyond all hope that Edward would find it in his heart to forgive me. That hope was dashed when he knocked into my desk as he left when the bell rang signaling the start of break. I walked outside for break, walking towards our usual place when I realized that I wouldn't be welcome there today, or probably any day. I overheard Emmett asking Edward what I had done. "Come on, Edward. You can tell us. You know that we're on your side, no matter what it was. You've been our brother for almost a hundred years, and that counts, but she looks so sorry. What is it that you can't forgive?"

"No, Emmett. This is between Bella and myself. It isn't any of your concern. Just suffice it to say, that I don't know if we're ever going to be okay again," Edward said. They looked at the door where I was standing, and I hung my head and ran around the other side of the building. I fell back against the wall of the school and slid down until I was sitting on the ground. I put my head onto my knees and ran my hands into my hair.

During Chemistry, we were having a lab today. Edward was supposed to be my lab partner, but when I got to the class, Alice was sitting with him. That left me to sit with some boy that was usually her lab partner. He said that his name was Larry, and wondered why Alice was sitting with my boyfriend. I told him that we had a fight, and Alice was blocking my way back to him. We finished the lab fine, and he said that he was sorry about our fight, but he was happy to get to work with me. I smiled at him and went back to my seat. We went to our next class, and again, I was ignored. When lunch came, they sat at their regular table. It really looked bare without me and Jasper sitting there. I went to another table, the farthest away that I could get from everyone in the cafeteria. While I was sitting there, I decided to try to text Jasper. I pulled out my phone, and typed in a message. "How are you?" and I sent it. I put my phone on silent.

In five minutes, I got a reply, "Lonely, how are you?"

I typed a reply, "Horrible. They all hate me."

He wrote me back. "I'm so sorry, B."

I wrote him back, "It's not ur fault. It's mine. I did it."

He wrote me back, "I did it 2."

I wrote him back, "Take care. Bye." Just as I was about to press the send button, someone grabbed the phone out of my hand. I looked up in shock and saw that it was Edward and Alice. Edward had my phone. He was reading back through my messages. He erased my final message and wrote, "Stay the fuck away from my wife." and pressed send before I could get the phone away from him.

I looked him in the eyes, and in vampire volume asked him, "What gives you the right?"

He answered me, in vampire volume, "For now, you are still my wife, and I have every right to tell your lover where to go."

Jasper answered, "Then treat her like she's your wife, not some dog on the street." Edward read the message.

He wrote, "Why don't you come and say that to my face?"

Jasper wrote back, "Any time, any place."

In vampire volume, I said, "You're drawing attention to yourself. Give me back my phone. If you want to continue this, I'll come to your table."

"No, I've had enough of you and your lover for one day," Edward said, barely in vampire volume. He slammed the phone shut and threw it at me. Then he and Alice returned to their table. I sat back down and put my head into my hands. I wanted to cry, for everything that I had done wrong, for everyone who I had hurt in the process, and for me, sentenced to this eternal damnation of a life that I was now cursed to live, without the love of my life.

"So, she slept with Jasper. That sucks," Emmett said in vampire voice when Edward and Alice got back to their table, "but it's not the end of the world, Edward. She is totally in love with you. Sometimes things happen in the passion of the moment. Everyone isn't as perfect as you are, Edward. Not everyone has enough strength to go one hundred years as a virgin. Bella is a passionate person, and Jasper is an empath. It is really hard for him to control emotions once two people have the same emotion. You know this. It isn't news to you. When he gets into a positive feedback circuit with any emotion, it is nearly impossible for him to control it. If he and Bella started feeling just a little lust for each other, it wouldn't take long for them to be overwhelmed by his empathic powers, and they wouldn't be able to control themselves. You can't really blame either one of them. You know that it is true, Edward. You have been on the receiving end of some of those emotions, just not lust," Emmett said.

"But, Emmett, she broke our wedding vows," Edward said.

"Did you promise to take care of her in sickness and in health, in good times and in bad?" Emmett asked.

"You know that I did," Edward said.

"Then you, too, are breaking your wedding vows," Emmett said.

"I am not. I haven't slept around on her," Edward said.

"But you aren't taking care of her in this bad time. I can't imagine a worse time that she would be going through than this. After all, she knows that she has done something wrong. She has made a major mistake that has hurt the man that she loves. Her family is shunning her, and she is a newborn with no where else to go. She can't even talk to her only friend left in the world because you'll flip out. She has no one else that she can talk to. Can you imagine a worse time for her to be going through?" Emmett asked.

"No, but you can't think that not being there for her when she is going through a bad time equals her cheating on me, can you?" Edward asked.

"Gee, Edward, I don't remember them weighing the vows, saying that this one counts this much and this one only counts this much. This one counts double if you break it on a Monday or a Thursday. And don't forget that this one doesn't count if you break it on Labor Day. Those rules didn't come with Rosie's and my vows. Ours all count the same. We promised to have and to hold, for richer or poorer, in sickness and in health, in good times and in bad, forsaking all others until death we do part."

"Okay, I see your point," Edward said. He got up from the table and walked back to where I was sitting. He pulled out the chair next to mine and sat down. Then he reached up and took my hands into his own. He lifted my head and turned my face to look at him. "Bella, I don't know when I'm going to be able to forgive you for what you and Jasper did, but I want to try to work this out. You are my wife, and I am your husband. What you and Jasper did hasn't changed that. It also hasn't changed the fact that I love you more than life itself. I'm very disappointed with both you and Jasper right now, and I'm also angry at both you and Jasper. I trusted you and Jasper enough to let you go away with him unsupervised many times. I never thought that there could be any reason to doubt that trust, and you both disappointed and hurt me in a way that I can't even begin to explain. I want for you to come back to our home. I want for you to come back into our bedroom. I don't know when I'll be comfortable with you in a physical way again, but I do want for us to be together so that we can try to work things out. Will you do that for me?"

"Oh, yes, Edward! Yes! I love you so much. What Jasper and I did was wrong. We both know that. I swear to you that it will never happen again. I want so much to work this out with you. I want to be your wife, and for you to be my husband. I will try to take everything slowly, at your pace. I'm just glad that you are giving me another chance. Thank you, Edward! Thank you!"

"Don't thank me, thank Emmett. He is the one who brought me to reason," Edward said. "Now come back to our table." He held out a hand which I took. I stood up and followed him back to our table and sat down beside him. I felt the others' eyes boring holes through me, especially Rosalie and Alice, but Emmett also stared at me.

"Thank you, Emmett, for what you said earlier," I said. "I really appreciate you sticking up for me."

"I wasn't sticking up for you, Bella. I think that what you and Jasper did was heinous and despicable. You've lost all of the respect that I had for you, and if Jasper ever comes back, I'll be having quite a talk with him as well, but you are a member of our family, and I couldn't go on with Edward treating you like a piece of dog shit," Emmett said. I hung my head and nodded.

"You're right. And since you all know what happened, I'll tell you that it was all my fault. Jasper gave me plenty of chances to back out, to stop what was happening. You don't need to blame him for what happened. The blame falls on me, and me alone. I'm quite sure that Alice saw exactly what happened, and she can back me up on that fact. This was my mistake and my mistake alone," I said. "I take full responsibility for my actions."

Before I knew what had happened, Alice had reached over and slapped me, hard. My hand flew to my face. She was staring at me with a look akin to hatred in her eyes. "Tell me you're sorry! You fucked my husband. You're the reason that he isn't coming home to me. Why don't you tell me you're sorry? You were supposed to be my best friend! And I had to watch it. These others don't know what I saw. Only you and I and Jasper know what you two really did, don't we. What you two had wasn't just a tryst was it, Bella? It wasn't just sex on the side, was it? I saw the foreplay. I saw the loving way that you two touched each other, the passionate kisses, the caresses. I saw you give him a chance to back away, and him give you a chance to back away. I saw both of you pounding into each other,"

"Enough Alice! That's enough," Edward said, holding his head. I knew that he had just seen everything that Alice had said through her mind.

"No, Edward, you want to give her another chance, then you get to see it all. You get to see them driving themselves into each other, not able to get enough on one another until they climax together, him filling her with his cum, and her pulling his seed within her."

Edward had his head down on the table, not able to block the visions that Alice was flooding his mind with. He knew it all. He had seen me at my worst. He had seen me loving another man, because yes, I was loving him at the time. He had seen my passionate kisses that were supposed to be only for him given to another, to his brother. He had seen me take his brother within me, as I was only meant to do with him.

I started to get up from the table to leave him to his thoughts, but as I rose, he grabbed my hand. "Where are you going?" he asked.

"I thought that since you had seen everything, you wouldn't want me to be around you, at least for a while. I was going to give you some space," I whispered.

"Seeing it hasn't changed anything. You told me what happened. You didn't lie about it. It makes it harder, seeing it, but it also makes me understand why it happened. I don't want you to go," he said, pulling me back down into the chair. He brushed the hair out of my eyes. "You really do care for him, don't you?"

"I told you that I do. I love him, in his own way, not the way that I love you, but I do love him," I said.

"I see that now. I don't know why I didn't see that before. I guess that I had blinders on. We really do need to go somewhere private and talk, don't we?" he asked me. I nodded. "Then let's get through the rest of this day, and we'll go away, into the woods and talk, just you and me. Okay?" I nodded.

The bell rang ending lunch. We walked to our lockers, Alice still visibly angry at me, Edward running interference between the two of us. We went to English II, and we took our seats. Edward and Alice were still battling it out in vampire volume when the rest of the class came in and were seated. Kurt sat behind me and started messing with my hair again. I so wasn't in the mood to deal with him today. I turned around and faced him. "Kurt, if you don't leave me alone, I'm going to do something to you that I'll learn to regret."

"Oh, I'm really scared. The rumor is that you and your boyfriend have had a little spat and have broken up. He's not around to protect you anymore."

"Our relationship isn't any of your concern. Anyway, I can take care of you alone, if necessary. I've quit playing miss nice girl. If you don't leave me alone, you'll grow to regret it."

He immediately began to mess with my hair when I turned to face the front of the class again. Then he whispered in my ear. "The rumor going around is that you and your brother are closer than you're supposed to be. Everyone saw the looks that Edward gave you and Alice gave Jasper when you two came in after your 'fresh air' Friday. The two of you looked awfully close to be brother and sister. The rumor is that someone heard Alice say at lunch that you slept with her man. That, my dear, would be your brother. Things are getting kinda kinky in that house of yours, aren't they? And where is your dear older brother today? Hmmm?"

What could I do? I knew that my emotions were raw. If I tried to answer him, would I give myself away? I couldn't even ask Edward or Alice to answer him. I knew that they would give me away. I couldn't keep quiet. That would be just as good as admitting my guilt. I slowly turned around, facing Kurt. I took a deep breath. "What you are implying is gross and disgusting. My brother and I have a close relationship, especially since our parents were killed. He has been my rock, and yes, sometimes I do lean on him when times are rough, but only as a big brother. What you are suggesting is vile. Edward and I have had a misunderstanding, and we are trying to work it out. Alice is very protective of her brother, and she is angry at me for hurting him. Our troubles are otherwise none of your business. Now, please leave me alone."

"What man of hers are you sleeping with, then?"

"Not that it is any of your business, but Edward, okay. She is very protective of her brother."

"How did you hurt him?"

"That is none of your business."

"Did you cheat on him?"

"That is none of your business."

"Did you lie to him?"

"That is none of your business."  
"Come on, what did you do?"

"That is none of your business."

"Bella, Kurt, would you like to share your discussion with the rest of the class?" Mrs. Willis asked.

"No ma'am," I said. "I was just trying to get Kurt to leave me alone."

"Kurt, is there something that can't wait until after class?"  
"Well, there are some rumors going around about Bella, and I was just trying to get her to sort them out for me," Kurt said.

"I don't think that is appropriate for during English Class, do you?" Mrs. Willis asked.

"No ma'am," Kurt said. "But, the rumors are really juicy, and this is the only time that I have a captured audience." The class burst out in laughter. I just buried my head into my hands. Alice just smirked, and Edward looked angry.

"Kurt, you are about to go pay Mr. Vance a visit. Would you enjoy that? I understand through rumors that have been going through the teacher's lounge, that you have been there several times this year already." The class laughed again.

"No ma'am."

"No ma'am what? The rumors aren't true, or you don't want to go again?"

"The rumors are true, and I don't want to go again," he said, blushing.

"Then let's get back to what I was saying. Today we are going to get started with the creative writing part of our year." I settled back and listened to what I was sure was going to be the only good thing that came out of today.

The rest of the day was tense to say the least. When school was over, Edward took my hand and walked me to Emmett's jeep. Alice refused to sit by me, so Edward sat in the middle on the way home. When we got home, Esme met us at the front porch. She smiled when she saw Edward take my hand when we climbed out of the jeep. I gave her a little smile when we walked past her into the house.

I hadn't noticed the Cadillac in the garage, but when we walked into the den and Carlisle was there, we stopped short. He gestured for us to all sit down. Alice stood in a far corner, Emmett and Rosalie took neutral seats, Edward pulled me down to sit by him on the couch, and Esme sat next to me. Carlisle cleared his throat and began. "We all know that something has happened that has threatened to tear this family apart. Notice that I said family, not coven. We have been a family for almost a century. We have faced many problems in that time span, but we haven't ever let any of those problems threaten our existence. Now we are faced with such a problem. I don't feel that we need to rehash what has happened. We all know the basic facts, and we don't need to know the details. Suffice it to say that we've almost lost one family member, and we're trying to drive away a second. People, mistakes happen. None of us are perfect. We all have made mistakes in our lives. What makes us a family is the ability to forgive those mistakes. Granted some of the mistakes are bigger than others, and some of those mistakes affect more than one person, but bottom line is that we need to move on. I've been in touch with Jasper, and I asked him to come home. Come on in here, Jasper."

I looked up when I heard footsteps enter the room. Jasper walked into the room from the kitchen. He stood in the doorway with his head down. Edward started to get up, but I held his hand, preventing him from standing. The tension in the room became palpable. "Come in and take a seat, Jasper," Carlisle said, motioning to the empty recliner across the room. Jasper looked at Carlisle, then at me, then he walked across the room and sat down, his head still down. "We've got to get past this if we're going to survive as a family," Carlisle said again.

"I believe that this is between me and Edward and Jasper and Bella," Alice said from her perch across the room. "I don't see where the rest of the family has anything to do with the situation."

"It's our business because the four of you aren't dealing with it and are letting it tear the rest of us apart," Carlisle said.

"Carlisle, I think that we just need some time. This isn't something that is just going to blow over. There has been a major violation of our trust, and that is not something that is just going to return just because we are having a family meeting," Edward said, looking first at me, then at Jasper. "Two of the most important people in my life have betrayed me in the worst way possible. I don't know how I'm ever going to get over that." He stood and walked to the glass window that looks out over the forest.

I got up and walked over to Edward. I put my hands onto his shoulders and rested my head onto his back. He shrugged me off of him, and walked through the door outside onto the deck in the backyard. I leaned onto the window, my sobs shaking me. I felt Esme come up behind me, wrapping me in her arms. "Give him some time, Bella. He'll come around," she said, and she walked away. The others left the room one by one, until just Jasper and I were left. I could feel him in the room. I could feel his eyes on me. Edward was still on the deck, just looking out over the forest. I felt pulled in both directions, to my husband who was hurting, but also to my lover who was also hurting.

I turned and looked into Jasper's eyes. They were calling for me. I went back to the couch, neutral ground. "Why did you come back?" I asked him. "You told me that you weren't going to. You ran away from me."

"When Carlisle called, he said that they were treating you very badly. He said that I needed to man up and come home and take their chastisement along side you. He said that you didn't deserve to take the brunt of their anger when what happened was between the two of us. He was right, though, I never thought that the other family members would find out what happened between us. I thought that Alice and Edward would keep it to themselves."

"Edward did try to keep it to himself, but when Emmett convinced him that whatever happened that he wasn't treating me right, Alice spoke up and told them that we had been unfaithful. I'm afraid that I told Esme in a moment of weakness," I said, looking at Jasper.

"It's okay, darlin'. I understand. You were here, facing their wrath alone. I never should have left you to face them alone. It was a cowardly thing for me to do. I'm sorry, Bella," Jasper said, still looking longingly at me.

"No, Jasper. I understood why you left, and your reasons were valid. I got myself into this mess, and I have to face the firing squad. Is there any hope for you and Alice to patch things up?"

"From what I was reading from her today, I don't hold out much hope. There wasn't any love in her feelings towards me at all, just hatred and spite. Like I told you at the lake, we've hurt each other in the past, but there's always been a spark of love there when we've gotten back together. This time, I don't feel that."

"I'm sorry, Jasper. I'm so sorry. I've ruined your life. Will you please forgive me?"

"Bella, it wasn't your fault. I told you that."

"Then you admit that you were using your power on her?" Edward asked from the doorway where he had walked back in without us hearing him.

"No, he didn't. I told you. He gave me opportunities to quit. I was the one to push forward, not him," I said.

"Yes, Edward, I used my powers to make her want me. I intensified her lust, and threw it back at her," Jasper said. Edward sprinted over to Jasper and grabbed him by the collar of his shirt.

"Edward, stop it. He did not. He said that he was going to come back her and take all of the blame so that you wouldn't be as angry at me. You saw the visions in Alice's head. You know that isn't true. You know that he gave me the option to back off, and I was the one who took him inside of me. You know the truth. It was me, not him. Let him go." I was pulling at Edward's arms. When I finally broke them free, I stepped in between the two of them.

Edward looked down at me, and I could see the hurt and humiliation in his eyes. I tried to reach for him, and he slapped me, not just an easy tap either. He hit me with all of his force, knocking my face to the side. Then he hit me in the stomach, again, with all of his strength. I doubled over in pain, waiting for the next strike to fall. It never came. The next thing that I knew, Jasper had Edward pinned to the wall. "If you have to hit someone, then hit me. Don't hit her ever again. You don't hit a lady," Jasper said.

"She hasn't been a lady since she fucked you," Edward said, throwing a punch at Jasper's face. He connected with his jaw. Almost immediately, Emmett and Carlisle were downstairs, pulling them apart.

"Edward, enough!" Carlisle shouted. Emmett dragged him upstairs to our room. Edward slammed the door, breaking the frame.

Jasper wrenched out of Carlisle's arms and ran to me. I was still on the floor, holding my stomach. He took me into his arms and held me, running his fingers through my hair. "Are you alright, darlin'?" he asked me. All that I could do was nod. My stomach hurt, and my jaw hurt. He took me into his arms and carried me to the sofa where he put me down. "Edward started hitting her. He hit her in the jaw and in the stomach," he told Carlisle.

Carlisle came up to me and said, "Let me see, Bella." He examined me, and said that everything looked okay. Then he said, "This whole situation is getting out of hand! I've had enough! You are going to all get yourselves under control, or you are going to leave this house. I will not tolerate any more of this fighting. We will work this out as civilized people. Now what do I have to do to make myself understood?"

"I need to leave. I'm just making things worse with my being here," Jasper said.

"No, Jasper. Please don't go. I...I..." I buried my head into his shoulder and cried. He wrapped me in his arms and held me against him. "I'm so alone without you here. Nobody … oh never mind. Just go. Do whatever you think that you need to do for you. I won't hold you back." I got up and walked over to the glass window.

"Bella, I know that you love Edward. If I thought that there was a chance for you and me to find something together, then I could stay. I'd wait forever for you. But you know as well as I do that you and Edward were meant to be together," Jasper said, coming up behind me, putting his hands on my hips and turning me around to face him.

"But you are my best friend. We have so much in common. I don't know how I will live my life without you. What will you do? I won't live with the knowledge that you've gone back to your old ways. I need you here. I need you to keep me strong. I need for you to love me, Jasper, the way that I love you. Yes, it is different from the way that I love Edward, but I still love you, Jasper. I can't let you go." I reached up and put my arms around his neck and rested my head on his chest. I knew that everyone in the house could hear every word that we were saying. Nothing was private, but I didn't care. I needed Jasper to know that I needed him to stay. I looked up and gazed into his eyes. He looked back down at me, and before I knew what was happening, I was kissing him again, open mouthed and deep. My hands were pulling at his back, and his were on my hips, pulling me into him. I could feel him growing hard against my thigh, and I stepped back and took a deep breath. I shook my head and took another step backwards. I put my hands onto his chest and pushed him ever so slightly away from me. I shook my head and put a finger to my mouth. I took him by the hand and led him out of the kitchen into the garage through the already opened door, then into the woods. We walked far enough into the woods that they wouldn't hear us when we ran. We ran for several miles, then when we stopped, I fell into his arms. I reached up and kissed him where we left off, deep and passionate. I ran my hands up and down his back, as he brought the kisses down my neck and onto my chest. He pulled me closer, grinding me into his erection. I lifted my leg and wrapped it around his hip, rubbing my core against him. He groaned, and I went back to kissing his lips as his hands went to my jeans, starting to unbutton them. As soon as they were unbuttoned, he slipped his hand inside of them, palming me, slipping his fingers in between my lips, feeling how wet I was for him. I reached down, and unbuttoned his jeans, pushing them down, freeing him from their confines. I took him into my hands, stroking him, letting him know that I wanted him. He looped his fingers into my belt loops and pushed my jeans down, and I helped him when he couldn't reach any farther by grabbing them with my feet and pushing them the rest of the way down. When I was free, I wrapped my legs around his waist, inviting him in, and he immediately joined with me, the fire ever present, but this time, more gently, making love to me, thrusting within me with a gentle yet intense motion, meant to convey his love for me. I met each thrust, bringing him deep inside of me, as far as I could take him. He brought me to climax twice before he came with me on my third time. We laid there, naked, holding each other in a peaceful embrace, for several hours when we heard footsteps approaching. We quickly sat up and gathered our clothes, knowing, however that it would be too late. Whoever was approaching us would see and would know. Instead of getting dressed, Jasper pulled my body into his, draping me, to hide my shame.

Seconds later, Edward stepped out of the brush. He stopped short when he saw us and comprehended what he saw. He turned his back, allowing us time to get dressed. When we were dressed, we sat back down, and Jasper put his arm around my waist. Edward turned back around, sighed, and sat down across from us. He looked at me for a while, then he looked at Jasper. None of us said anything for several minutes. Then, Edward said, "Is this the way it is going to be then? Are you in love with Jasper, Bella?"

"I don't know," I answered truthfully. "I know that I am very attracted to Jasper, and I do love him, but I love you, too, Edward. I love Jasper differently than I love you, and I don't know how to explain it. I love you with my heart and my soul, but I love Jasper with a passion that envelops me and makes me want to attack him. I want for you to hold me and love me and make love with me, and I want Jasper to do the same. I am so confused right now that I think that I am going crazy. I don't know what is happening to me. I think of losing either one of you, and my heart breaks. I can't stand the thought of you walking out of my life. I can't breath when I think of losing you, but if I think of Jasper leaving me, the same thing happens. I could no longer pick between the two of you than I could chop off one of my arms. I could no longer go on living without either one of you. I don't think that I'd be complete without either one of you."

"Do you love her, Jasper?" Edward asked.

"Yes, more than life itself," he answered.

"Bella, I love you, but I don't think that I could ever share you. I wasn't brought up that way, and I don't think that I am a person that will be able to compromise on that. I don't even know if I can in all good conscience take you back into my bed, knowing that you have had another man, not once but twice. Bella, I kept myself pure for you, until our wedding day. Chastity and faithfulness mean something to me. I'm not a man who believes in open marriages. Maybe you'd be better off staying with Jasper. He loves you, and he will take care of you, where I may not be able to anymore."

"Edward, no! Please, no! I love you! Don't do this to me! Please!" I got up and ran over to where he was sitting. I knelt in front of him. "Please, Edward, please. Don't leave me! I've loved you since the first day that I met you. Please! I... Oh, God! Please just strike me dead!"

"Enough of the histrionics, Bella. You've made your choice, and you confirmed it here, today. I want you to be happy, and it seems that Jasper does at least make you happy," Edward said. He stood up, and taking my hands in his, he lifted me from the forest floor. He walked me back over to Jasper, and he placed me into Jasper's hands. "Take care of her, brother," he said before sprinting off. I fell into Jasper's arms, sobbing. He held me close to him, wrapping me into his strong arms, holding me until I was cried out.

Then we stood up together. "Time to face the music," he said, and we walked back towards what at least used to be our home.


	23. Chapter 23

**Stephenie Meyers owns it all.**

**Chapter 23 - Repercussions**

We walked all of the way home, not wanting to speed our judgment. When we reached the back deck, Emmett was waiting for us. "Have a seat," he said very quietly, so quietly that I doubted that it could be heard inside. I looked up at Jasper, and he squeezed my hand. We sat down on the edge of the deck. "I wanted to talk to you before you went inside. Edward came back an hour ago. He had a look of a defeated man on his face. He didn't say anything; he just went upstairs and packed a bag. He left fifteen minutes later without saying a word to anyone. He isn't answering his phone. We have no idea where he is going or when he will be back. We may have an idea why he left, but we thought that we'd wait for the two of you to get back before we speculated about that." I hung my head in shame. "That's what I thought. He caught you two again, didn't he?" I nodded. "Dammit Bella!"

"Don't use that kind of language with her," Jasper said, starting to get up from the deck.

"Okay, you're right. That won't help anything. What I want to know is, did he tell you where he is going or when he would be back?"

"No, he didn't even tell us that he was leaving," I said. "It would have been better for everyone if we'd have just left."

"I'm not saying whether it would have or wouldn't have, but the fact remains that Edward is out there, alone, in his state of mind. He has gone away by himself before, but we're all worried about him. Would you try to call him, Bella?"

"Of course," I said. I pulled out my cell phone and speed dialed his number, hoping that he would automatically pick it up when he heard my ring tone.

Either it worked, or he wanted to talk to me. "Hello, Bella."

"Edward, why did you leave?"

"....I just needed some time to myself....Time to think things through without Alice's visions popping into my head every time I turned around. It is enough to think about without having to see what...happened...every time I relaxed my mind."

"So you're not gone for good?"

"No, Bella. I just had to get away from everybody else's thoughts. From their sympathy to their anger to their 'I told ya so's.' I couldn't hear myself think. Tell them that I'm sorry that I left the way that I did. I'll be back when I work some things out. I love you, Bella."

"I love you, too, Edward. I'll tell them. Do you need anything?"

"Just some peace and quiet."

"Okay. Call me if you need anything else. Okay?"

"Okay, love. Good-bye."

"Bye." I hung up the phone and held it to my heart. Jasper looked into my eyes, and took me into his arms.

"That went better than you expected, darlin?" he asked.

"Yeah, he called me 'love.'"

"What did he say?" Emmett asked.

"He just needs some time to think. He wasn't able to think with everyone else's thoughts crashing in on him. He just needs some alone time. He will be back when he gets everything figured out," I told him.

"Are you ready to go inside and face the others?" Jasper asked me.

"Ready as I'll ever be," I said, taking his hand and moving towards the door to the den. As we stepped inside, I felt as if every eye in the house was boring a hole right through me. I squeezed Jasper's hand just a little bit tighter. He squeezed mine back, offering me some silent comfort. We walked in and sat on the couch, side by side.

"I guess that Emmett has already told you that Edward has gone," Carlisle said, his voice not as kind as it was earlier in the day.

"Yes, he has," I whispered.

"Do you two want to tell me why he left without telling anyone where he was going?" Carlisle asked.

"He said that he needed some time to think things through. He couldn't think in the house with everyone else's thoughts interrupting his own, with Alice's visions invading his thoughts. He wanted time to process everything, then he'll be back. He said not to worry," I told them.

"Well, I guess that I could see that. He does have a lot weighing on his mind right now, and all of our thoughts on the matter must be overwhelming for him to deal with. I can see that he could have problems figuring out which thoughts were even his own," Carlisle said.

"Is that the only reason that he left, Bella? Aren't you leaving out something?" Alice asked.

"When I talked to him on the phone, those were the only reasons that he gave me, Alice," I said.

"Are you sure, Bella? Are you sure that you're not leaving something else out?" Alice said in a condescending voice.

"Yes, I'm sure those were the reasons that he gave, Alice, but since you are so determined to tell them, why don't you go right ahead, okay. Just get it off of your chest, since you are one of the major reasons that he left, after all," I said, squeezing Jasper's hand again.

"What do you mean, Alice is one of the major reasons that Edward left, Bella?" Carlisle asked.

"Alice's visions. She keeps replaying them over and over in her head so that Edward has to revisit our indiscretions. He feels like he doesn't need to keep seeing Jasper and me together, and with her continually replaying the scenes in her mind, he had to get away."

"Bella...never mind, Alice, why would you keep doing that to Edward? There is no reason to continually bombard him with reminders of what happened between Jasper and Bella. I'm quite sure that he has no problems remembering without reliving the details. I, for one, don't blame him for leaving if you were doing that."

"Way to change the subject, Bella. You still haven't told them what our puritan Eddie walked up on today, have you?" Alice asked.

"You seem so bound and determined that they know, why don't you just go ahead and tell them, Alice?" I asked.

"There's more?" Esme asked.

"Oh, yes, dear mother, much more. Our dear, pure, brother, just happened to walk upon his wife lying naked in her own brother's, my husband's arms before he left to 'clear his mind,'" Alice said.

"Keep your head up, darlin'" Jasper whispered into my ear so that no one else could hear. I raised my head to look straight into Alice's eyes.

"Go ahead, finish your tale, Alice," I said. "Don't forget to tell them how we made love in the woods, again," I said. You could hear a pin drop. "Do you want them to know how many times he made me come? Three. Anything that I've left out, Alice? Do you want them to know what positions we used? Missionary. Anything else that I've left out, Alice?" I was getting hysterical.

Jasper took my head in his hands. He turned me to look at him. "Bella, calm down, darlin'." Then he kissed me in front of everyone in the den. I stopped looking around the room and found his eyes. Then I started kissing him back. When he broke the kiss, he asked me, "Are you all right, darlin'?" I took a deep breath and nodded.

Then I sheepishly looked at everyone in the room. "I'm sorry. I think that I lost control there for a little bit. Please forgive me."

"Ya think?" Emmett said, and the others, minus Alice, laughed. She just jumped out of her chair and ran upstairs, slamming the door. Rosalie ran after her.

"I wonder how many doors and door frames I'm going to have to replace before this is over?" Esme asked no one in particular. We all laughed again.

"So, if you two don't want to talk about this, then tell us to butt out, but how serious are you?" Carlisle asked.

"I love her, Carlisle," Jasper said. "But she loves Edward, and I know that."

"I love both of them," I said. "I know that you're not supposed to, but I do, each in their own way. I feel like my heart will break if I lose either one of them."

"If you had to chose, Bella, who would you chose?" Carlisle asked me.

"I couldn't. I don't know. One minute I'd say Edward because he is my life force, but the next minute I'd say Jasper because he is the one that I live for. My life isn't whole without both of them. When Jasper was gone, there was such a hole in me that I couldn't breathe, and now that Edward is gone, I don't want to breathe." I moved so that I was sitting closer to Jasper. He put his hand on my knee.

"I don't know what to tell you kids to do. I've never experienced what you are talking about, so I have no advise to give you. The only thing that I can do is tell you to follow your hearts," Carlisle said. He stood, and offering Esme his hand, they left the room, leaving the two of us and Emmett.

"You two are in one tough situation," Emmett said. "I don't envy you at all." He got up and went upstairs to his and Rosalie's room. We were again alone.

Jasper turned to face me on the couch, turning me to face him as well. "So, Bella, just what have we gotten ourselves into?"

"One mell of a hess, as Charlie used to say," I said, lowering my forehead against his. "I know that you know that I love Edward, but you don't seem to realize that I do love you, too."

"Bella, your love for me is different from your love for Edward. I know that. Your love for him is boundless and eternal. What you feel for me is more lust and passion. I'm an empath, remember. I can feel the difference. I know that you think that what you feel for me is love, but darlin', it isn't the same," Jasper said. "I wish that I could tell you differently, but I would be lying to you, and I won't ever lie to you, darlin'."

"What are you saying? That I have a crush on you?" I asked.

"No, it is much stronger than any crush, darlin', but it isn't love like you have for Edward."

"But it is still love that I have for you, isn't it, Jasper," I whispered.

"Yes, Bella, you do love me, but not like you love Edward. I need to bow out of your life, darlin' and let you and Edward be together," he said to me.

"But you won't leave me, will you, Jasper?... Will you?" I asked, getting a little upset.

"Bella, your life will be so much easier with me out of it. Edward won't have to worry about me seducing you again. He won't have anyone to be jealous of or to have to share your love with. Darlin' my leaving you will make Edward's life easier," he said.

"You didn't seduce me, Jasper. I made love with you of my own free will. When will everyone in this house, besides Alice, realize that? That it wasn't your fault. That you and I acted of our own free wills, both of us, not just you. Jasper, is there more that I don't know about you? More that would make them think that you would take advantage of me?"

He looked down, took a deep breath, then looked me square in the eyes. "Yes, Bella. I told you that I haven't always been faithful to Alice, but I didn't tell you that for many years, when we were first with the Cullens, we broke up because of my infidelity. I was quite the ladies man when I was with Maria. I was with a new woman nearly every night, whether I changed her or killed her for my meal. I didn't really change that part of me when I first got together with Alice, and it spilled over into my life here. I wasn't much of a one woman man. This family knows that part of me, so when you and I became lovers, they naturally blamed me and accused me of seducing you."

"I didn't know," I said quietly.

"Does it matter to you?" he asked me.

"It shouldn't. It was in your past," I said.

"But," he said.

"But, I don't know. I wish that you weren't so experienced. It makes me feel so inadequate. I know that I could never measure up to you when it comes to making love. I...I..."

"Bella, you are fine. In fact, you bring me more pleasure when we make love than anyone that I can remember in a very long time. Making love isn't about experience. It is about showing someone exactly how much you love them," Jasper said, pulling me into his embrace.

"Are you sure? I don't know, Jasper. I don't know how you can get any pleasure from me at all when you have had so many others," I said.

"Yes, Bella. As a matter of fact, it is all that I can do to keep my hands off of you right now. I want to be inside of you, to make love with you all night long, but I know that I can't do that. If you want any chance at all with Edward, I have to end our sexual relationship now. You can't keep coming back to me if you want to keep Edward, and Bella, I know that you love him like no other. I love you enough to want that for you. I've got to let you go," he said.

"I want for you to stay," I whispered.

"As your friend? As your brother? Because, Bella, I can't stay as your lover. I can't come between you and Edward any more. Can you accept me on those terms?" he asked me, pulling my face up to look into his eyes.

My heart was breaking. I wanted to kiss him and tell him, "No." He was waiting for an answer. I put my hands on either side of his face and pulled him to me. I brought my lips to his, and I kissed him for a final time. "Yes, my Jasper. If that is the only way that I can have you, then I will accept you as my friend and my brother. Will you stay?"

"Yes, darlin', I will stay. I will be in my library if you need me any more tonight," he said, and he got up and gave my hands one last squeeze before walking upstairs into his library.

I sat on the couch by myself, wondering where my life got so screwed up so quickly. It kept coming back to one name, Kurt. If he hadn't tried to let all of the snakes out, then Jasper wouldn't have been so angry, and then Jasper wouldn't have spun out of the school parking lot, and then Jasper wouldn't have been pulled over, and then Emmett wouldn't have been making fun of him, and then the fight wouldn't have happened, and then Jasper wouldn't have run away, and then I wouldn't have followed him, and then our lives wouldn't have been turned upside down. Yes, I could trace it all back to Kurt. Somehow, I would make him pay.

"Are you okay?" Esme asked me. I nearly jumped out of my skin. I hadn't heard anyone come down the stairs, much less come up near me. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to scare you. Can I sit down?"

"Yes, sure," I told her, motioning to the seat next to me.

"Are you okay? You've been through hell today."

"No, truthfully, I'm not. I don't think that I've ever been this confused in my life, living or dead," I said. "I think that Jasper just broke up with me."

"Jasper just did the hardest thing that I think that he's ever done in his life," she said, pulling me into her arms. "He let you go."

"But I think that I love him, too, Esme. I know that I love Edward. I love him with my life. But I don't know what I'm feeling for Jasper. I think that I love him, but he's trying to convince me that I don't love him. Why is he trying to make me believe that I don't love him? Has he used me and now he wants to get rid of me? Is that the game that he's playing? I don't understand, Esme? I'm so frustrated! I want to cry, and this damned body won't let me cry!"

"No, Bella. I don't believe that about Jasper at all. He may have been more of a playboy when he first joined us, but he has changed in the past 50 years. Between you and me, Bella, I believe that he is so in love with you that he doesn't want to further mess things up with you and Edward. I believe that he sees exactly how your affair has hurt you and Edward, and he is willing to give you up to allow you to have a future with Edward at his expense."

"Do you really think so?" I asked her.

"Yes, Bella, I really think so. I think that he is being a gentleman. I think that he is trying to take care of you. Now, why don't you go and lie down for a couple of hours before you have to try to get through another day of school." She took my hands and pulled me up from the couch. She led me up the stairs and into my and Edward's bedroom. She made sure that I was lying down on the bed, and then she left, closing the door behind her.

I laid there, lost in my thoughts for several minutes, I don't know how long, when my phone rang with Edward's dial tone. I answered it immediately. "Hello, Edward. How are you doing?"

"Not so great right now. How about you?"

"The same."

"Where are you?"

"I'm lying down in our room. Esme made me."

"Are you alone?"

"Yes. I would never bring anyone into our bed."

"Will you come and see me?"

"Yes, where are you?"

"I'm at the corner right now. I'll be waiting."

"I'll be right there. Just let me put on some fresh clothes for school."

"Okay. I'll see you soon."

"Bye." I hung up the phone and threw on some fresh clothes. I ran downstairs and left from the front door. I ran down the driveway and onto the street. I saw the Volvo at the street corner and ran at human speed towards it. When I got there, he opened the door, and I climbed inside. He didn't say anything; he just drove away from the house. We stopped in a deserted parking lot away from the lights. It was three thirty in the morning.

He was quiet for a long time. Then he turned his head and looked at me. "Bella, do you still love me?"

"Yes, Edward, I still love you. I love you more than life itself. I'm so sorry that my actions have hurt you. I wish that I could tell you that I didn't know what I was doing, or that Jasper seduced me, but that would be a lie. I knew what was happening, and I wanted it to happen, both times that I made love with him. I didn't do it to hurt you. I didn't do it because you weren't keeping me satisfied. I didn't do it because I wanted a fling," I said.

"Then why did you do it?" he asked me, his head on his hands.

"Because I love Jasper," I said quietly. "But you don't have to worry about that any more."

"Why not?"

"Because he broke up with me tonight. He said that our love, yours and mine, is a love that is meant to last. He doesn't want to come between us any more than he already has. He said that he will be my friend and my brother, but he will no longer be my lover."

"And that is supposed to make me feel better? Does that change your feelings for him, Bella?

"No, it doesn't. I still love him. I won't lie to you. You mean to much too me for me to lie to you. I respect you too much to ever to lie to you."

"Bella, I love you. I want to give us another try, but I can't do that if you are going to have any relationship with Jasper. I can't share you. I can forgive you. No one is perfect, least of all me, but I can't share you with Jasper. If you are going to have a physical relationship with him, then tell me now, and I'll step away and wish the two of you the best. But, if you want to stay with me, then you have to assure me that anything physical with Jasper is over. No kissing, No petting, No anything else."

"That is more than I deserve, Edward. I don't deserve your love, but I treasure it. I promise that I won't let you down. It is going to be hard, but I don't want Jasper to leave. It isn't fair for him to have to leave our family because of this. Please don't be too hard on him."

"Okay, but I don't think that I can give you another chance, Bella. You are going to have to be mine, alone. You understand that don't you?"

"Yes, Edward, I understand."

He leaned over the console and kissed me. I kissed him back, at first keeping the kisses chaste. Before long, he was deepening the kiss, asking for permission to enter my mouth. It was so different from Jasper who took control of our kisses, while Edward was so passive. I opened my mouth to allow him entrance, and his tongue entered my mouth. We kissed, and he started fondling my breasts. He took my sweater off and buried his face between my breasts. Then he took one of them into his mouth. He pulled me onto his lap, straddling him. I ran my fingers through his hair, kissing his forehead as he took my bra off. I felt him get hard underneath me, and I started grinding into him. He groaned as I moved against him, suckling on one of my breasts. I continued to grind into him, and soon, he was thrusting his hips into me. I knew that he was close to his orgasm, and I sped up my movements on him. As he came, he bit down onto my breast, making me cry out.

At that point, as he was calming down his breathing, with his face between my breasts, a spotlight shone into our car. I looked up and couldn't see where it was coming from. I reached for my sweater, trying to pull it on, as someone knocked on the driver's window. Instead, I settled for just covering myself as Edward rolled down the window. Of course, with the way that my luck was going today, it was a police officer.

"I guess I don't have to ask what you kids are doing out here, do I?" the officer asked. I got off of Edward's lap and crawled back over into the passenger seat. He handed me my bra. "Get dressed young lady," he said. I just put the bra into the glove box and quickly put on my sweater. When he turned back around, he asked Edward for his driver's license. Edward pulled out his wallet, and gave him his Alaska driver's license. He also asked for the registration for the car. Edward opened the glove box, and to his chagrin, my bra fell out of it. He handed it to me, then he pulled out the registration which was in his name. He handed it to the officer who looked at it. "You are the registered owner of this car?"

"Yes sir," Edward said. "It's my car."

"Do you have any identification with you, young lady?" the officer asked.

"No sir. I didn't bring my purse," I said. I knew that this was about to get worse.

"Where do you live, young lady?" he asked.

"At the same address," I answered.

"You two live together?" he asked.

"Yes sir," Edward said, "We were both adopted by the same person when our parents passed away."

"Well, let's go see your parents, shall we?" the officer asked. "We'll follow you home."

"Call Carlisle. Let him know what is happening so he can prepare the house," Edward said.

I picked up the phone and dialed Carlisle's cell. He answered and I explained that Edward and I had been caught by the police in a parking lot in a compromising situation, and they were following us to our home to let our parents know what was going on. He laughed and asked me if I was going to cause any more problems this week, and I just growled at him. He promised that our siblings would be in bed with the lights out, and he and Esme would be asleep in their night clothes as well. I told Edward that Carlisle was taking care of it. Then I buried my head in my hands for what felt like the hundredth time in the past twenty-four hours.

Edward pulled into the driveway, and the police car followed him in with his lights on, flashing blue in the night. We got out of the car, and they followed us. Edward went to open the door, but they stopped him. They were going to ring the doorbell. "Why don't you just let me go in and get them? There isn't any need to wake the whole family," Edward said.

"Okay. We'll be waiting right here," the officer said. Edward walked inside and several minutes later, the door opened again, and he and Carlisle and Esme came back outside.

"I'm Carlisle Cullen, and this is my wife Esme. My son, Edward, said that you needed to speak with us," Carlisle said.

"I'm Officer Manning, and this is Officer Boyd. I assume that you know this young lady as well," the officer said.

"Yes, that is our daughter, Bella Hale," Carlisle said.

"Can we come inside?" the officer asked.

"Sure, of course," Carlisle said, opening the door and motioning the officers and us in. He led us into the den and the officers took seats on the couch. Edward and I took seats on the love seat. He took my hand into his, and Esme looked at us and smiled. Carlisle and Esme took seats across from the couch. "What may I do for you?"

"First of all, don't you wonder what your children were doing out at four o'clock in the morning?" Officer Manning asked.

"Now that you mention it, that is a good question. Edward, Bella? Do you have a good answer?" Carlisle asked.

"We needed to talk about some things," Edward said. "Neither one of us could sleep, so we decided that rather than take the chance of waking anyone else, we would go out and talk."

"Is that what you call what you were doing? Talking?" Officer Manning asked.

"No sir. We had finished talking by the time that you drove up. We were making out by the time that you arrived," Edward said, looking down at the floor. I looked up and saw Jasper at the top of the staircase. He nodded at me, then he smiled and walked away. I looked back down at the floor. I didn't know how I felt. I wanted so badly to run to him and tell him that I was sorry, but instead, I squeezed Edward's hand tighter.

"What do you mean that you two were making out, Edward?" Carlisle asked.

"Exactly what you think that I meant, Carlisle. We were caught in a compromising position. Do you want more details, or is it enough to tell you that it was inappropriate?"

"I think that the details can wait. I want the two of you to go upstairs and get ready for bed. You will not be excused from school tomorrow. We will talk when I get home from the hospital. Are we understood?" Carlisle asked.

"Yes sir," Edward said.

"Yes sir," I said. Edward got up and taking me by the hand, he led me up the stairs. We went into our bedroom and closed the door, locking it behind us. We could hear Carlisle thanking the officers for seeing us home and promising that he would see to our punishment. The officers stated that I could have been arrested for public indecency, and then they thanked him and apologized for waking them up so early in the morning. Then they left.

As soon as they were out of the driveway, the house came alive. Our siblings started knocking on our door. We didn't answer it. Instead, Edward shed his dirty jeans, and we went into our bathroom together. Then, we got into the shower. I washed Edward's hair, massaging his scalp, just like he liked it. Afterwards, I soaped up a rag and started bathing his body, letting the suds run over his skin. I skipped his groin, going instead to his legs and his feet. I went back to his groin, soaping my hands and washing him using only my hands. When he was clean, I took him into my mouth, taking him all of the way in until he bumped the back of my throat. Then I sucked him and hummed around him, causing him to groan. He started moving within my mouth, finding a rhythm that worked for him. I gently allowed my teeth to drag along his length when he pulled out, and he moaned again. When he thrust in, I sucked on him, swirling my tongue around him. It didn't take long before he had my head in his hands, guiding me onto him as he thrust into my mouth. I hummed again as he thrust deeply into my throat, and then he came, releasing down my throat. I swallowed everything that he gave me, licking him when he was finished.

"My God, Bella! That was wonderful! Please feel free to do that to me anytime that you get the urge to," he said as he collapsed back onto the shower wall. "Do I want to know where you learned to do that?"

"No, Edward. Jasper did not teach me how to do that. Jake did," I said, moving to the front of the shower to wash my hair.

"I'm sorry, love. I promise that I will try not to do that in the future. I will try not to bring up what has happened. We will leave it in the past where it belongs," he said, pulling me into his arms.

He kissed me, and I said, "No, Edward, I deserved that. I'll just have to learn to live with the fact that you don't trust me anymore."

"That's no reason to continually bring up hurtful things, Bella," he said, working shampoo into my hair. When he turned me to rinse my hair, he kissed me again. I returned the kiss. Then he lathered the rag and bathed my body, taking care with my breasts and my core. I rinsed myself off and stepped out of the shower to dry off. I stepped into the bedroom and got dressed. He followed me and got dressed. We sat down on the side of the bed and just held hands. "I don't want to talk to anyone about this today, Bella. Can we do that?" he asked me when it was time to go downstairs.

"Yes, Edward. I agree. I think that we need to get things worked out first," I told him. I picked up my bookbag, and we unlocked the door moving into the hall.

When we went downstairs, the others stared at us. Everyone else was downstairs, including Jasper. He was standing away from the others. I dared a glance at him and caught his eye. He shook his head. "Where is everyone riding today?" Edward asked.

"Jasper will not set foot in my car," Alice said.

"Then he can drive mine," Edward said, tossing him the keys to the Volvo. "You can ride with Emmett and Rosalie," he said to Alice. "It is time to heal this family." We all went outside and got into the cars. Edward sat up front with Jasper, and I sat in the back. "Don't Jasper. I don't want to hear it. Not today, anyway. Please, just keep your thoughts away from anything to do with that topic for now, okay," Edward said. Jasper looked at him and nodded.

When we pulled into the parking lot at school, we got out of the cars and Edward stopped us before we went into the gym. "Please, let's all at least try to portray a united front while we're here. If we need to go our separate ways once we get home, so be it, but for the eight hours that we are here, let's try to remain a family unit."

We walked into the locker room to change. Alice and Rosalie totally ignored me again. We walked out onto the dodgeball floor. In my opinion, it was about time that we found another game to play. We spread out on the floor and began the game. It yet again came down to the six of us. Again, there were four balls in play. Alice and Rosalie had three of the balls, and Emmett had the other one. Alice looked straight at Jasper and then at me. She took one of the balls and threw it at Jasper with all of her vampire strength. I could barely follow the ball as it hit him square in the chest with a loud thump. It knocked the breath out of him, and he doubled over. I barely had time to register what had happened to him when two balls came spinning at me, both of them thrown at vampire strength, one aimed at my head, and the other aimed at my chest. Before either had time to hit me, Edward had rushed in front of me, deflecting the balls, preventing them from hitting me. Then he walked over to Jasper who was still doubled over.

"Are you okay, Jasper?" he asked quietly.

"Yeah, I'll be fine. Just wasn't prepared for it to hit me that hard. Is Bella okay?" he asked.

"Yes, I got to her in time," he said. You could hear the strain in his voice. Then he straightened up and looking at Alice and Rosalie, he said, "Enough. Alice, Rosalie, outside, now." He walked off of the court without looking back to see if they were following, knowing that they would be. In the dynamics of our "family," he was second in command, only to Carlisle. When they were in the entrance way of the gym, he started talking to them. Only Jasper, Emmett, and I could hear what was being said. "I asked the two of you to be on your best behavior before we came in. Instead you threaten to give us away by throwing the balls like that. You try to hurt Jasper and Bella. Rosalie, you have no place in this issue, yet you are putting yourself in the middle. You should be neutral. Alice, I know that they've both hurt you in the worst way possible because I'm there, too. But I also know that it is time to get past it and let this family heal. They aren't together any more. They have no intention of being together any more. They didn't do this with the intention of hurting either one of us. They have true feelings for each other that they are fighting. If you would calm down just a little bit, you might just see that they are hurting, too. If you continue to hate them, it is only going to bring you down, Alice. I can't tell you what to do about Jasper, but I can tell you that Bella is going to be in my life, and if you want to stay a part of our family, you are going to treat her with respect. She made a mistake, and she and I are dealing with that mistake together. If you try to harm my wife again, you will answer to me. Now, the two of you need to pull yourselves together and go back into that gym. You will apologize to Jasper and Bella. Then you will sit out the rest of the game. Am I understood?"

"Yes, Edward," Rosalie said.

"Alice?" Edward prompted.

"Yes, Edward," Alice said.

They walked back into the gym and walked up to Jasper who had taken a seat in the far bleachers away from the other students. Edward followed them. Rosalie looked at Jasper with disgust in her eyes and said, "Jasper, I'm sorry." Then she walked away from him and took a seat.

Alice looked at him with outright hate in her eyes and even at vampire volume managed to mumble, "I'm sorry."

Edward nudged her and said, "Mean it, Alice."

"I'm sorry that I threw the ball and hurt you, but"

"No buts. NOT HERE," he said. "Now for Bella," Rosalie got up from her seat and followed Edward over to where I was seated.

"Bella, I'm sorry that I threw the ball intending to hurt you," Rosalie said.

"I accept, Rosalie. I understand," I said. "I know that you are angry at me," I started.

"Anger doesn't even begin to describe what I feel towards you, Bella," Rosalie said. I nodded and hung my head.

"Alice, your turn," Edward said.

"I'm sorry that I intended to take your head off when I threw the ball," Alice said. I just nodded.

"Locker room," Coach Mitchell yelled, and we all went to change clothes. When we were in the locker room, Rosalie grabbed me by the neck and pushed me against the wall. "What you and Jasper did was beyond disgusting," she whispered into my ear. "You were supposed to be Alice's best friend. You betrayed her friendship in the worst sort of way. She has learned to accept that behavior from Jasper which is hard enough for her to bear, but for it to be you, has pushed her beyond all reason." The other students were just watching the exchange between the two sisters.

I used my newborn strength to push her off of me and turned her around, pressing her into the wall and holding her there. I whispered into her ear, "I know that what Jasper and I did hurt a lot of people, not just the four of us. I'm not too blind to see that, but Jasper and I are over. Edward and I are trying really hard to make our marriage work, and your butting in is not helping. I understand that you are trying to be a friend to Alice right now, but you aren't helping this situation. Alice needs to talk things over with Jasper, whether they decide to stay separated or to get back together. Your encouraging her animosity towards him isn't helping either one of them to get their issues settled. You need to back off Rosalie and give her some space." I let her go and turned around only to have her hit me in the back of the shoulder with her full vampire strength. I turned back around, and with my newborn strength, I put my hand around her neck and pushed her back against the wall. "We will settle this when we get home, Rosalie," I said out loud, sure that the guys would hear from anywhere in the gym.

"I'll be looking forward to it, Isabella," she said out loud. I let her go and turned around to get dressed again. When I was finished, I walked outside of the locker room, and Rosalie came out right on my heels to find all three of the guys standing against the opposite wall, waiting for us to come out.

"What happened in there?" Emmett asked, worry on his face?

"Later, at home," I said. There were a gaggle of girls surrounding Rosalie and me to see if our fight would carry on outside of the locker room.

Rosalie went up to Emmett and put her arm around him. She whispered something in his ear that I couldn't hear. He pushed her off of him, and said, "You just couldn't leave well enough alone, could you? I asked you to stay out of it, but you just had to step right in the middle of it. Rosie, I don't ask you for much, but when I do, I expect for you to honor my wishes." He walked away from her, and Edward, Jasper, and I followed him.

We went to our lockers and then to our second period class. We took our seats, and Alice eventually showed up. She slammed her books down on the desk and plopped into the seat. She didn't look at Edward or me during the whole class period. In fact, once, I was sure that I heard her growl. I did my best to ignore her and worked on our homework. I barely finished it before the bell rang because I was so distracted by other thoughts which I couldn't get out of my mind. I looked at Edward and could see that he was also distracted. He started to walk out of the door, and I reached for his hand. When my hand touched his, he turned around to face me. The look in his eyes was one of deep hurt and despair. He took a deep breath and took my hand in his. Then he tried to give me a grin. It came out as a grimace. I knew that we had a long way to go.


	24. Chapter 24

**Stephenie Meyer owns it all.**

**Chapter 24 – Kurt's Lesson**

We left second period and headed outside for morning break. Alice joined us, though she didn't say anything. Within minutes, Jasper, Emmett, and Rosalie also joined us. Alice looked at me, then at Jasper, then she walked away from us to the side of the building where I spent my morning the day before. I looked up at Edward and asked him with my eyes if I should follow her. He nodded, and I walked around the side of the building to face Alice.

I walked up to her, and she looked up at me, her eyes searing mine with their hatred. "Alice, can I talk to you?"

"Can I stop you?" She glared at me, attempting to make me look away.

I held my gaze. "Alice, I'm so sorry that I hurt you, that we hurt you. I know that what we did hurt you, but that was never my intention. I didn't set out to hurt either you or Edward, though I know that's what ultimately happened. You mean so much to me, Alice. I'm so sorry. I don't expect you to ever forgive me for what I've done. I know that I've taken what you had with Jasper and ruined that for you. I'm so sorry, Alice."

"Bella, you don't know what it was like for me when Jasper and I first got together," she whispered. "I never knew when he was coming home or if he was coming home. He had one woman after another. He could never remain faithful to me. I had a vision that we would be happy together, a couple, so I held onto hope and him, and eventually, he became the man that you grew to know. I never dreamed that he would revert back to the man that he was before, and when I saw him with you, I realized that the old Jasper was back, the one who would just sleep with anyone for his pleasure. He had caught you up in his web of lies."

Neither one of us heard him walk up, so when he spoke, we both jumped. "Ali, that's not true. I'm not that man again. I know that what Bella and I did makes you think that I have gone back to being that man whore that you knew, but I haven't. Alice, I have feelings for Bella. I love her in a very real way. I still love you, Alice, darlin', but I understand if your feelings have changed for me. I just wanted you to know that I didn't take advantage of Bella like you were thinking that I did. I haven't been with anyone besides Bella in the past fifty years. I've been faithful to you, Alice until Bella, and I am truly sorry that we let you down."

Alice looked into Jasper's eyes and ran into his arms, throwing hers around his neck and hugging him. He looked over her shoulder at me, and I tried to smile. I nodded at him and turned away to give them some privacy. I walked back to our group and stood by Edward. He leaned over my shoulder and asked in a very low vampire volume, "How did it go?"

"I think that they are going to be okay," I whispered back. Rosalie overheard my comment, and she looked furious.

"How can she even think of taking him back?" she whispered in vampire volume.

"They love each other," Edward whispered back. "Nothing is too big to forgive when you love someone." He put his arm around my shoulder and pulled me back into him as Alice and Jasper came back around the corner of the building and rejoined our group. They weren't holding hands, but they were walking together. She had a slight smile on her face, and Jasper looked better. I wanted to hug him, but I knew that it would ruin what had been gained on both sides. I think that the one relationship that was sacrificed permanently was mine and Jasper's friendship. Every move that he and I made for at least the next five to ten years would be under exacting scrutiny from everyone in the household. Well, I guess that we deserved it after what we had put the rest of the family through.

The bell rang signaling the end of morning break, and I was sorry to see it end. What we had accomplished during that twenty minute period was so much more than we had achieved in the past three days. I wanted to smile, but I felt that to do so would somehow jinx us. Edward and I let the others go inside ahead of us. He held my hands and squeezed it as we saw Jasper take Alice in his arms outside of our lockers and give her a kiss on the head. She didn't pull away, rather, she rested her head on his chest. I felt a slight pull of jealousy, but I shoved that deeper into my heart and tried to realize that I had my Edward, and Jasper deserved his Alice. When he pulled away to go to his locker, we walked up to our lockers to get our books. I stepped up to Alice and hugged her. At first, she was stiff, but soon she loosened up and put her arms around me, hugging me back. Edward sighed beside us because we were blocking his locker, and we laughed. We got our books, and went to class. We sat down in our seats, and for the first time in days, there were no icy glares, no stares, and no clenched fists.

We got through chemistry and were in world history when all hell broke loose and our lives were again thrown into turmoil. We were taking notes, talking about the Peloponnesian Wars when we heard Emmett's voice. "Edward, Alice, Bella!" Nobody else in the class heard, but we knew that by the sound of his urgency, something drastic had happened. We jumped from our seats in the back of the room and ran to the door. Mr. Edwards had stopped his lecture and asked us what in the world was going on, but we just ran by him. We raced down the hall to the biology room where the others were. When we entered the room, the smell of blood hit us in the face, and we saw Emmett trying to hold Jasper away from the girl who had blood running down her arm. Rosalie was on the floor in the corner lying against a broken desk. Jasper had evidently thrown her off of him. Edward, Alice, and I immediately went to Emmett's side and tried to get a grip on Jasper. He was able to throw Emmett off of him before any of us got a good grip on him, and he was able to get a couple of steps closer to her before Edward threw himself between them, grabbing Jasper by the neck and knocking several desks onto their sides. Jasper was able to duck under his hold, slinging Edward against one of the lab tables, but it gave me enough time to get a good hold on him around his waist, and with my newborn strength still intact, despite his trying to loosen my arms, I was able to fight him towards the door. Alice came over to help, trying to pin his hands, but he was able to get his legs around her and kick her against another of the lab tables. I was struggling with him, but I whispered into his ear, "Jasper, you don't want to drink from her. Hold your breath. Let me get you out of here. You don't want to drink from her. Trust me." He calmed a little bit, just enough to allow me to get him out of the room. The others followed us down the hall, making sure that he didn't escape my grasp. I managed to get him outside of the building and to the jeep. Edward helped me to get him into the jeep, and Alice jumped in with us. Emmett got in, and Edward dug his keys out of Jasper's pocket and threw them to Rosalie. She got into the Volvo and followed us home.

By the time that we got home, Jasper had settled down. I let go of him, and Alice led him into the house. Carlisle pulled up into the driveway within minutes of us getting home, and he came right in. "Okay, what happened?" he asked as he came into the den. Esme was coming down the stairs to join us. "The school called and said that the six of you destroyed a classroom and then left campus without permission."

Jasper hung his head and said, "It was my fault, Carlisle."

"No, Jasper. You couldn't control it. It is the risk that we take every day by forcing you to go to school. Some girl in his Biology class cut her hand during what looked like a dissection lab. She was bleeding quite profusely by the time that we got to the room," Edward said. "Emmett and Rosalie were trying to hold Jasper back, and a couple of desks got broken in the struggle. It was quite the fight. We were lucky that Bella doesn't have the blood lust and still has her newborn strength. Otherwise, we may have lost that one. Her blood was very enticing. I'm kind of shocked that Bella didn't go for it as well."

"Edward is right, Jasper. It is hard for us to lay the blame for something like this when it happens when we all know how you struggle with human blood. You do so well on an everyday basis, sometimes it is hard for us to remember how difficult it is for you to keep your thirst under control. There will be no blame placed on you for this incident within this home. What we do need to do is damage control. Edward, did anyone pick up on anything supernatural about what happened?"

"Well, it is hard to tell. I didn't stick around long enough to see how their thoughts settled out. There were a few that were wondering how we knew that we were needed. There were a few that were wondering how Jasper was so strong that he could throw Emmett around like he was a sack of potatoes. Then there were several thoughts about how Bella could get him out when he threw the rest of us around like toys. I don't know if they are going to self-answer the questions explaining everything away, or if they are going to grow suspicious."

"Well, let's get Jasper sedated from his panic attack and get the rest of you back to school. Esme, where is my checkbook? I think that a donation to the school library is in order, don't you?"  
Carlisle asked. We all nodded except Edward.

"Um, Carlisle, we're not writing checks remember. We're still trying to lay low, below the radar. How much are you planning on giving him?"

"I figured about ten thousand would do it. Do you have that much around here, Edward?" Carlisle asked.

"Oh, yeah, of course. I just needed to know how much you wanted. Are you and Esme running low?"

"No, I just forgot that we're not doing checks, that's all." Edward went upstairs and came back down with a handful of wrapped bills. He counted out ten thousand dollars and gave it to Carlisle. He then gave each of us another thousand, just in case, he said.

We climbed back into Emmett's jeep and followed Carlisle back to school. When we arrived, our class was at lunch. We followed Carlisle to the office. He told Mrs. Espey that we needed to talk to Mr. Vance. She called over the intercom for Mr. Vance to come to the office. Within a couple of minutes, he came in the door followed by Mr. Stapleton, Emmett's, Rosalie's and Jasper's Biology teacher. Mr. Vance invited all of us, including Mr. Stapleton, into his office.

"Dr. Cullen, I'm so sorry to have to call you like this. This is Mr. Stapleton, your kid's Biology teacher. His classroom was the one that was destroyed."

"I think that destroyed is too strong a word. Damaged maybe?" Emmett said.

"Emmett, when we have need of your opinion, we will ask you for it," Carlisle said.

"Yes sir," Emmett said.

"Are you familiar with what happened, Dr. Cullen?" Mr. Vance asked.

"I'm familiar with their side of the events. Would you like to tell me what the school's side of the situation is, please."

"Mr. Stapleton, please, go ahead," Mr. Vance instructed.

"Well, we were in our Biology lab. We were beginning our dissection of the fetal pig. One of the students managed to cut herself with the scalpel, a pretty nasty cut, if I do say so myself. Anyway, she screamed and held up her hand, and almost immediately, your boy, Jasper, where is he anyway?"

"Jasper is home, sedated," Carlisle answered.

"Anyway, as I was saying, Jasper jumped out of his seat and started to go towards the girl. The look on his face was frightening. I told him to get back in his seat, but I could tell that he wasn't hearing a word that I said. Emmett and Rosalie jumped out of their seats to try to stop him, I guess. I told them to go back to their seats as well, but they ignored me. When they got near Jasper, he actually growled at them. He slung Rosalie into a group of desks, breaking one of them. Then your other three kids, I don't know their names, came into the room out of nowhere. They ran to intercept Jasper as well, and they got thrown around the room, all except the one over there." He pointed to me. "She was able to get a hold of him around the waist and somehow, only God knows how, she was able to get him to the front of the room and calmed down. Then they all got him out of the classroom. I've never seen anything like it before in my life, how that little sprig of a boy was able to throw all of these guys around like they were made of feathers, with enough power to break desks. He must have been high on some kind of drugs."

"I want him drug tested, Dr. Cullen. We have a zero policy for drug use in our school system, and if he is shown to have been high on drugs, then he is out. Do I need to send the school nurse by your home for the urine?" Mr. Vance asked.

"No, I will take care of it when he wakes up. He is not on drugs, except those that I've given him to sedate him," Carlisle started to explain.

"Every parent wants to think the best about their children, Doctor. Even children with good parents like yourself can be taken in by the drug market," Mr. Vance said. "Your children aren't immune to the pressures of being a teenager in this day and time, and with the tragedy that they have so recently gone through, they are even higher risk than usual for drug use."

"Mr. Vance, if you would have let me explain further, I would have told you that Jasper suffers from PTSD. That stands for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. He was, unfortunately, one of the first people on the scene of his parent's accident. It happened very near their home. When he came upon the accident, their car was unrecognizable. He didn't realize that it was them until he looked into the car and saw his parents covered in blood. He knew basic first aid, all of the kids do, and he climbed into the bloody car and searched for a pulse, first on his mother, then on his father, not finding one on either. Then, he crawled into the backseat, again through all of the blood and gore to the Cullens, looking for pulses, again, not finding one. The paramedics found him next to the car in a pile of his own vomit, conscious, but unresponsive. He was covered from head to toe in their blood. It was days before he spoke again. He has been doing fairly well. He still has frequent nightmares and generally needs sedation to sleep. But, by being exposed to blood like that, well, I guess that you could now see what it did to him, and understand maybe a little of what was going through his mind. Trust me, Jasper isn't on any drugs that I haven't prescribed for him."

Emmett had his arm around Rosalie, and Edward had one arm around me and the other around Alice. We all looked like we were going to break down any second. We were playing our parts to the fullest.

"I didn't know. I'm so sorry. When did this happen?" Mr. Stapleton asked.

"About four months ago, now," Carlisle said. "They are all still having a hard time of it. They have all had to deal with Jasper's...attacks since it happened. Bella was able to calm him because she is the baby of the group. She turned to her big brother for comfort when this happened, and he saw the need to protect her, so when he was out of it, she was able to bring him back around by asking him to help her in return. He was able to bring himself back just enough into reality to let them get him away from the blood and get him home where I could sedate him. He'll be alright. He is strong. He'll bounce back. We all have faith in him. Now, about the damages."

"Well, Dr. Cullen, I'm not sure of the exact amount. I mean, we've just gotten the classroom cleaned up. We haven't even begun pricing the replacement costs of the desks," Mr. Vance said.

"Well, I'll tell you what, then. I'll just give you this ten thousand dollars. Whatever is left over, consider it a donation for the library, and we'll call it even. How's that?" He pulled out the money and started counting out the stacks of one thousand bills until he had laid ten of them on the desk in front of Mr. Vance. The look on Mr. Vance's face was priceless.

"I'm sure that the amount will cover the replacement costs of the desks as well as be quite an endowment to the library, Dr. Cullen. Thank you very much, and don't worry about the drug test. I understand much better since our talk what was happening with Jasper. Of course accidents happen, however, we will do our utmost to see that he is never exposed to blood again."

"I do appreciate that. Now, may the other children get back to their classes?"

"Certainly." We stood up and all gave Carlisle a hug on our way out of the door. Edward, Alice, and I went back to our World History room and gathered our belongings which we had left when we ran out of the room. Then we went to the lunchroom to our usual table. We were quiet to allow Edward to scan the room.

"Well, we certainly won't have anyone approaching our table anytime soon," he said in vampire volume. "They are convinced that there is something wrong with us. They aren't thinking supernatural, but they do think that we aren't normal. They are saying that it is best to stay as far away as is possible from us. They thought that Jasper was on some kind of drug or is crazy, one of the two. The snake story got out, and they think that he is some crazy snake handler, like it is his religion or something. After his outburst today, they think that he is on PCP. They think that he is liable to lash out anytime or anyplace. He has them scared, and that makes them wary of the rest of us. I think that we're going to come out of this okay." We all breathed a sigh of relief.

The bell rang, and we went to our next class. When we walked in the hallway to our lockers, the student body as a whole seemed to somehow part a little to let us pass through. We gathered our books and went to Geometry. We took our seats and started working our homework. We completed it before Mr. Poole was finished explaining the material. Every now and then, a student would look back at us and then quickly turn around and face forward if we met their eye. It became a game of sorts. Finally, Mr. Pool had enough. "Would you all face forward and remain facing forward," he almost yelled at the class. That put an end to the spectator sport for nearly ten minutes before they were at it again. I was never so glad to leave a room as I was when the bell finally rang.

Edward, Alice, and I made our way to English II as if we were walking on a red carpet. The crowd split as we passed by allowing us a jostle free passage into the classroom. We took our seats amid the whispered gossip, the perpetrators not knowing that we heard every word as clearly as if they were speaking into a microphone. "I heard that she is sleeping with her brother." Edward and Alice tensed with that one. "Their brother went wild in Biology today. He dates the little pixie one." "I heard that he went crazy when he saw the blood." We all held our breaths when we heard that. "Yeah, he was trying to get to Rebecca. She had cut herself with the scalpel. He was trying to kill her or something." "My boyfriend was in the room. He told me that he actually threw all of them across the room. It was like he was on PCP or something. Then Bella, that one, caught him around the waist and whispered something to him, and he calmed down." "Yeah, that is the one that she is supposed to be sleeping with. It makes sense doesn't it." Edward had closed his eyes, and his jaws were clenched. "Eww, that would be incest. That's gross." "That's what I heard." "Yeah, I heard it, too." "Kurt told me." Just then, Mrs. Willis came into the room, and the whispering came to an end.

I had just thought that I was glad to get out of the other room. If the earth could have opened and swallowed me up at that point in time, I wished that it would have. It was hard enough for Edward to deal with what Jasper and I had put him through, with having to hear about it non-stop at home, and having to see it in Alice's visions, but now, he was having to hear it at school as well. I was afraid that all of the progress that we had made would go right out of the door. I was also afraid that the progress that I had made with Alice would take a beating, and because this was English, I wasn't even sitting next to them. I couldn't even see their subtle facial expressions to gauge what they were thinking. To top it all off, Kurt was up to his old tricks again. He was going further today than he ever had in the past. Not only was he playing with my hair, but he was stroking my neck as well. I reached behind me and grabbed his hand, squeezing it a little harder than I should have. He gave out a cry, grabbing his hand and opening and closing his fingers. Mrs. Willis walked back to his desk and asked him what was wrong. He said that it was nothing, and she gave him one more chance. Edward looked back at him with anger in his eyes, and when their eyes met, I could tell that Kurt physically shook in his seat.

I made it through the rest of the period and driver's ed without any more problems out of Kurt or the other students. However, when school was over and we were at our lockers putting our books up, Kurt had the audacity to come up to me again. He leaned against the locker next to mine and said, "My Beauty Bella, how about we go out this Friday night. I want to take you to a movie and out to eat." He took his hand and pushed a strand of my hair behind my ear. Then he took his hand and put it behind my neck, trying to pull me closer to him.

The next thing that I knew, Edward had Kurt by the neck and was walking him outside of the building. Alice and I quickly followed calling for Emmett and Jasper. We were afraid that Edward was going to hurt him. When we got outside, Edward already had Kurt shoved into the floorboard of the Jeep and was holding him down. "Edward, what are you doing?" I asked him when I climbed into the Jeep.

"Kurt and I need to have a little talk, and I don't think that he will listen unless we are more alone than we will be on campus," he said, his hand covering Kurt's mouth so that he couldn't call out for help. The rest of us quickly piled into the Jeep, and Emmett drove us out of the parking lot. We passed the cops who were sitting in their usual spot near the school parking lot, and headed towards the forest. When we had a clear stretch of road with forest on both sides, Emmett pulled to a stop. Edward got Kurt out of the car, and Jasper, Emmett, and I followed. Rosalie and Alice took the Jeep home.

Edward had Kurt by the back of the neck, and he led him back into the forest about half a mile then shoved him to the ground. When Kurt got back up, he started to run away. Edward just shook his head and ran after him, easily out running him and bringing him back to where we were. "You aren't going to be able to get away. You might as well take a seat and listen," Edward said after the third time he'd brought him back. Kurt looked around at the rest of us and took a seat. "Look, I understand that you've been through a lot in your life. Your father isn't a nice man, and he isn't the best example of how to treat a woman. In fact, one day, he will end up killing your mother if he continues to beat her like he did last night. However, the point that I'm making is this. That isn't how you treat a woman. When a woman tells you no, she means no. That means stop. Do not proceed. Keep your hands off. Do not touch. Bella has told you more than once not to touch her. She has told you more than once that she does not want you to talk to her. I've told you more than once to leave her alone. We shouldn't have to tell you repeatedly these things for you to pay attention and take them to heart. Bella is my girlfriend, and whether or not we are having issues, I am always around to make sure that she isn't bothered or hurt. So are her brother and my brother. We are a very close family, and we do not take kindly to the fact that you are harassing Bella. It is time for it to stop. Have I made myself clear, Kurt?"

Kurt looked up at Edward, then at Jasper and Emmett. Finally, he looked at me. He nodded, but Edward just shook his head. "Kurt, you nod your head, but you don't mean it. Your thoughts just shifted to how beautiful my Bella is. Yes, I know how beautiful Bella is. I've known how beautiful she is for what seems like an eternity. I've been with her for the past five years as her boyfriend. I know exactly how beautiful she is both on the inside, in her heart, and on the outside. But, you aren't hearing what I'm saying. She doesn't belong to you. She isn't yours to look upon and to dream about. In fact, the things that you are thinking about doing with her are vulgar. I have half a mind to beat you to a bloody pulp and leave you for the animals to finish you off, but unfortunately, you are not the first to think of my Bella in those terms, nor will you be the last."

Kurt looked at Edward with fear in his eyes. "How do you know...."

I walked up to Edward and put my arm around his waist. "Kurt, we've been through this before, but never to the extent that you are taking it. Edward is very good at reading people and their thoughts. He rarely gets it wrong. I do not welcome your advances. In fact, if you don't leave me alone, I'm going to hurt you."

"You? You are too sweet and innocent to hurt anyone, Bella. You may threaten, but you could never hurt a soul," Kurt said.

I looked at Edward and said, "I think that Kurt needs a demonstration of just what I can do to him if I set my mind to it, don't you?" He nodded, and when I looked at Jasper and Emmett, they nodded as well. "What do you guys think will make the most impact with our little friend here?"

"Why don't you rip off Jasper's arm, Bella," Edward said, laughing. Emmett joined in with the laughter.

Jasper just looked at Edward and Emmett and said, "Very funny, guys."

"No, I think that Kurt needs to understand that Bella could rip off his arm if he touches her again," Edward said seriously.

"Besides, you owe me a couple," Emmett said. "I'd take this in partial payback."

"Oh, okay," Jasper said, "but Bella, just make it quick, so it doesn't hurt so badly."

I nodded. I walked over to Jasper and leaned up to his ear. I whispered so that only he could hear. "I'm sorry." Then I took his arm and with a twist and a pull, detached it from his body. When I looked at Kurt, he had fainted. He was totally out. I immediately turned back to Jasper and positioned his arm correctly so that it could begin to meld back to his body.

"Do you think that he learned his lesson?" I asked.

"I'm pretty sure of it. He wet his pants," Emmett laughed. "How are we going to get him back to the school?"

"Bella and I will run him back. You two go on home," Edward said, lifting Kurt in his arms. He started running at vampire speed back towards the school, and I followed him. Kurt was still out cold when we arrived at school. Edward placed him around the side of the school where he let the snakes loose, and we left him there. We ran back through the forest to our home, not speaking along the way.

When we got back to the house, our siblings were waiting for us with congratulations abounding. They thought that our stunt was extraordinarily original. However, Esme's face didn't really portray the same emotion. She looked at us with a grim look, one of disapproval. I couldn't help but hang my head, though I wasn't sure exactly why. "Did any of you stop to think that you could have given us away?" she asked. We all looked at her. "What part of lying low are you guys having a problem with? You practically yell to this young man that we are supernatural! What human has the power to rip someone's arm off? What human doesn't bleed to death if their arm is ripped off? You are trying to give us away?"

"No, Esme. We would never give us away. When Jasper walks into school tomorrow with both of his arms intact, no one will believe his story, and now he will keep his hands off of Bella," Edward said. He put his arms around me. "That's the important thing. He was bothering Bella and wouldn't take no for an answer. He needed to be taught a lesson, and he wasn't learning the subtle lessons that both Jasper and I had given him before."

Jasper walked over to Alice and put his good arm around her. She looked up at him and smiled. She reached up on tiptoe and gave him a kiss, and he kissed her back. Then they went upstairs to their room. Rosalie looked after them with anger on her face. Emmett put his arm around her shoulder and pulled her closer to him. "Don't Rosie. Let them work it out in their own way. You know that they love each other and that their relationship is different from ours. Let them handle it their way." She looked at me with hate in her eyes.

I stared back at her, refusing to lower my eyes. It was time for Rosalie's attitude to end. "Would you like to go outside and talk to me, Rosalie? I don't think that what we need to say needs to be said in the vicinity of this house."

"I think that I'd like that very much, Isabella," Rose said.

I started to head for the door leading to the back yard when Edward grabbed me by the arm. "No, Bella. You don't need to do this. I don't think that anything needs to be discussed any more. What happened is over. You are my wife. We are handling what happened between the two of us and between Alice and Jasper. It is none of Rosalie's business, and Rosalie needs to get over it. If she wants to stay a member of this family, she will get over it. Nothing that happened involves her, and she needs to remember that and GET OVER IT."

He took my hand and led me upstairs to our bedroom. He shut the door and locked it. Then he turned around and leaned against it, putting his fingers against his nose, his pose for when he was deep in thought. I walked up to him and put my arms around his neck, resting my head against his chest. After several minutes, he lowered his arms to put them around my back. He rested his head against mine. We stood there like that for hours, not paying attention to the passage of time. As the sun started to set, he asked me if I'd like to go hunting with him. I readily agreed, and we broke our embrace and left our room. We walked through the house, not meeting any of the others as we made our way to the backyard where we started running into the forest. We ran for miles upon miles until we found a herd of moose. We quickly drained one each, then we came back together and sat down on the forest floor. We sat there in each other's arms, just looking at the stars as they made their way across the night sky. After a particularly beautiful shooting star, Edward looked into my eyes and asked me if I had made a wish. I told him that I had, and he leaned over and kissed me. The kiss reminded me of old times, those before I messed up everything. I kissed him back, pouring all of my love into the kiss. I wrapped my arms around his neck and ran my fingers through his hair. He wrapped his arms around me, tugging up my shirt and pulling it over my head. He continued to kiss my neck and my collarbones and that little hollow between them. Then he unfastened my bra and pulled it off. He laid me down on the forest floor, and he began to nuzzle my breasts, taking one, then the other into his mouth. I began to breath more heavily as I began to become aroused. My hands automatically went to his chest, and I took his t-shirt off laying it on the ground beside us. I touched his chest and his back, rubbing small circles that I knew that he liked. While his mouth was attending to my breasts, his hand went to my pants and started to unbutton them. He slid them and my panties down effortlessly. Then he unfastened his own pants and pulled them and his boxers down, releasing himself from their tight confines. He reached between my legs, feeling my wetness, and then he climbed over me, positioning himself at my entrance when he paused. We were both breathing heavily at this point, but he lowered his head between my breasts, and said in a low whisper, "I'm sorry, I can't. I thought that I could, but I can't." He picked himself up, and gathering his clothes, he walked away from me. I laid there in shock. I eventually sat up and gathered my clothes. I got dressed silently and just sat there, waiting for him to return to me.

When he still hadn't returned by daybreak, I stood and went looking for him. I followed his scent into the forest and found him sitting on some boulders about a mile and a half away from where we had been. I approached him silently, and when he looked up at me, I smiled. He looked down as I climbed the boulder to sit beside him. I took his hand in mine and said, "You have nothing to apologize for. I understand completely, and I don't blame you one bit. You have been great through this whole thing, and I love you for it."

"But I do have to apologize, Bella. I got you all worked up, and then left you without any sort of release. That is inexcusable. I should have never done that."

"Edward, that is nothing to be sorry about. Life happens. If that is the worse that ever happens to me, then I'll be a pretty happy girl. Remember, you did that to me every night for a year when we were in high school in Forks, and you would sneak into my bedroom every night. I'm definitely none the worse the wear for it," I laughed.

He laughed, too. "Yeah, I guess that I did, didn't I?" he asked. I nodded.

"You don't know how many times that I had to go to sleep wet beyond your wildest imagination," I told him.

"Oh, I imagined, all right," he said. "I just wouldn't ever do anything about it. You were still unspoiled, and I planned on keeping you that way until our wedding night."

"It's funny the way that things worked out, isn't it?" I asked him, squeezing his hand.

"Funny definitely isn't the word that I'd choose to describe our relationship. More like a Greek tragedy, I think," he said with his head lowered. "Bella, I truly am sorry about just now. I thought that I could make love to you. I thought that I could put everything behind me and take you as my own. It's just that as I was about to take you, the images of Jasper entering you flooded my mind, and I couldn't do it. I realize that makes me a hypocrite, and I'm so sorry, but I don't know when I'll ever be able to love you as a husband should."

"Edward, I understand. I don't blame you. I also don't want to push you to do something that you're not ready for. We'll take things at your pace, and when you're ready, we'll rejoin as husband and wife, not until. I don't want you under stress to do something that you aren't ready to do. So, I'll wait, and when you're ready to try again, then I'll be here. Just know, Edward, that I love you. Now, let's get back to the house. We're going to need a shower before we go to school."

"I don't think that I'm going to go today," he said. "I need some time alone. You go on without me."

"Are you sure? They're going to ask me where you are. What do you want me to tell them?" I asked him as I got up to head back to the house.

"That it is really none of their business! No, don't do that. They just care. Tell them that I'll be back when I'm ready," he said.

"So, you're not coming back today then?" I asked, turning around to look at him.

"No, Bella. I probably won't be back for a month or so," he said, getting up from his seat on the boulder.

"Can I come with you?" I asked him.

"Then I wouldn't be getting any alone time, would I?" he asked me, taking my hands into his.

"Where are you going?" I asked.

"I don't really know for sure. Just going," he said. "I need to work out my feelings."

"But Edward, how are you going to be able to do that without me with you? You have thought that you had worked out your feelings before today, and it wasn't until we attempted to make love that you realized that you hadn't worked through everything that you thought that you had. How are you going to work through anything without me with you?" I begged. "Please, Edward, don't leave me!"

"Bella, I need some time to myself. I think that I deserve that much, don't you? Please just let me go." I stood there as he gave me a kiss on the cheek and turned to run into the forest. My hand lingered on the spot where his lips last touched.

When I could no longer hear a twig snap or a branch sway in the wind, I turned to head back to the house. I ran not caring what branches snagged my hair or what briers tugged at my clothes. I opened the door to the den and stumbled into the house, going straight to our room. I fell into the bathroom and into the shower, trying to scrub the morning off of my body. When I came out of the bathroom to get dressed, Alice and Jasper were in the room. Alice went into the bathroom and grabbed me a towel which I covered myself up with. "Why are you here?" I asked them.

"Jasper told me that you were about to have an emotional breakdown. We thought that you could use some friends. Do you want to tell us what happened?" Alice asked me, coming up to me and putting her arm around me, leading me to the edge of the bed where we sat down.

"Edward is gone," I whispered. "He left me."

"Oh, Bella. I'm sure that he'll be back soon. I know him, and he loves you. He'll be back before you know it," Alice said.

"Then you haven't seen it?" I asked her, turning on the bed to face her. "You haven't seen where he is going?" I raised my hands and ran them through my hair, taking a handful in each hand and pulling. Jasper rushed to my side and grabbed my hands before I could make myself bald.

"No, I haven't seen anything about him leaving. He must not have made any sort of decisions at the moment," Alice said.

"He said that he needed time alone to figure out what he was thinking. He said that he would probably be back in around a month," I said, starting to get a little hysterical.

Alice pulled me closer to her and put her arms around me. "Don't let this bother you, Bella. When something bothers Edward, he does this. It isn't unusual for him to leave for about a month or even two when something is on his mind. He just needs some quiet time, and the only way that he can get that is to get away from people. You've got to understand, Bella, that Edward can be in a silent room with people in the room, and to him, the room is a cacophony of noise. He can't lie down in this house and think without everyone else's thoughts interfering with his own. So, when he needs quiet, he leaves. Don't think of it as a statement against you. That isn't it at all," she said.

I turned and gave her a hug. "Thank you, Alice. That makes me feel so much better. Maybe he'll get things figured out and will be home before a month is up. I hope so anyway," I said.

"Me, too, Bella. Me, too," Alice said. "Now, get dressed. We don't want to be late for school." Alice and Jasper left me alone in our room, and I got dressed. I just put on some dark jeans and a loose fitting t-shirt of Edward's. I wanted to be able to smell him today after all that had gone wrong. I made my way downstairs only to be shuffled back upstairs by Alice and told to put on something appropriate for school. She led me into my closet and picked out an outfit which she supervised my changing into. On the second trip downstairs, I passed the wardrobe checkpoint and was allowed to board the Jeep for the ride to school. Since we were one short, it was only necessary to take one vehicle. I was about to start the second worst time in school in my life. Ironically, the worst time in school in my life was also a time that Edward left me, the first time that he left me. What made this time better, however, was the hope that sometime, in the relatively near future, he would be coming back to me.


	25. Chapter 25

**Disclaimer: Stephenie Meyer owns it all.**

**Chapter 25 – Fingers and Toes **

The second worse school time in my life started that Wednesday morning. Our family went to gym. The locker room went silent when Alice, Rosalie, and I entered. We quickly changed into our gym clothes and gathered on the floor for yet another round of, you guessed it, dodge ball. Emmett decided to make things interesting. He gave Coach Mitchell a one hundred dollar bill to give to the last person standing. I really didn't want to play; I didn't feel like playing; I so wasn't in the mood to play a silly child's game like dodgeball when my husband had just left me, but Emmett's enthusiasm was contagious. We all played an above average human level game until all of the humans were out, then we picked up the pace of the game. There were five of us in the game, so today, Coach Mitchell gave us each a ball. There were balls flying from all directions. Rosalie was the first to get out by a combination of throws by Jasper, Alice, and me. She could have avoided two of the balls, but the third one caught her in the middle of her leap to the left. She reluctantly took a seat on the bench. Coach Mitchell removed one of the balls from play, keeping it one ball per player. Emmett was our next target, and we caught him with exactly the same maneuver. Coach Mitchell removed another ball from play, leaving us with only three balls. Alice and I joined together to put out Jasper, but try as we might, we never could entrap him using only two balls. If we went high and low, he went to the side. If we went high and to the side, he dropped low. If we went low and to the side, he jumped. He was able to thwart our every move. He really was an amazing athlete. I was oh, so proud of him, and I know that Alice was too. By the time that Coach Mitchell called and end to the game, most of the people in the gym were cheering him on. Coach Mitchell took the one hundred dollar bill and handed it to Jasper. Alice went up to him and gave him a big hug. Then we all went into the locker rooms to change again.

Alice and I went to our lockers and got our books for the morning. Other than the teachers asking us where Edward was, the classes went by fine. We did our homework during class when possible, and took notes in the other classes when we needed to. We sat together at lunch, and the others took special care to keep my spirits lifted. When we went to English II, the assignment on the board was to write a fictional short story about a hero/heroine who had special powers. I smiled and looked at Alice. In vampire volume I asked if her heroine would be able to see the future. She answered that she would indeed and asked me if my heroine would be able to shield herself from flying objects. I told her that I thought that I would write instead about a hero who could read minds. She laughed and told me that she thought that it was a great idea and that she was going to change to a hero who was an empath. I laughed and told her that I thought that it was a wonderful idea.

When Kurt walked into the room, he moved his desk as far away from mine as he could get it. I turned around in my seat and looked into his eyes. "So, Kurt, you aren't going to bother me today?"

"No, Bella. I have no intention to disturb you today," he said, lowering his head and refusing to look me in the eyes. I grinned at him.

I turned back around in my desk and started writing my short story. I finished writing it with fifteen minutes left in the class. I proofed it and changed a couple of sentences around to make it flow better, and I turned it in before class was over. Alice turned hers in right after I turned mine in. Mrs. Willis started reading them before we left the room, and she laughed out loud. I wasn't sure which one of ours she was reading, but I was sure that the powers that we had picked were pretty original. After all, most of the time people think of powers, they think of throwing fireballs or slinging spider webs or some such superpowers.

The rest of the day was completely normal. We left the school campus as usual and made it home in good time. I was hoping beyond hope that Edward had returned home in my absence. I was crushed when I ran upstairs to find our room empty, the way that I'd left it. There was no Edward. I closed the door and slid down to the floor, just sitting there, absorbed in my own thoughts. I was thinking of my Edward. Where was he? What was he thinking? Would he be coming back? I didn't move until the next morning when Alice knocked on my door.

"Are you going to get ready for school?" she asked. I got up from the floor and opened the door. She stepped into the room. "You haven't moved from that spot since we got home yesterday, have you?" I shook my head. "Bella, you have to go on with your life. You can't just give up. You have to keep living."

"I have no life without Edward. He was the reason that I chose to make this change and to live for eternity."

"Bella, none of the rest of us had the choice that you had. We have all had to learn to live regardless of what hand we were dealt. We haven't all had the loves of our lives with us every day. You have been blessed that you have had Edward the amount of time that you have had him, but you are not guaranteed to have him for all of eternity. Fate could deal you a rotten blow, even worse than the one that you have dealt yourself. Regardless, you have to live everyday. You can't feel sorry for yourself and quit living. Life doesn't work that way, vampire or not."

She had given me a lot to think about. I knew that what she said was right. Edward had lived alone from 1918 until he met me. Who was I to think that I had the right to curl up and wither away just because Edward had decided to go away for a month. I went into the closet and changed my clothes. I went downstairs and decided to make the best of the days until he came back. School was a typical day that ended without problem. We had several exams the next day, but none that we would have to study for. That was one wonderful characteristic that I had never heard about being a vampire that I was excited to discover, the photographic vampire memory.

I studied my Spanish with Alice and Jasper after school, and I was progressing rather well if I do say so myself. I could hold my own with simple conversations. They started picking a topic and asking me questions about the topic. I answered them the best that I could, and then we would have a conversation about that topic.

When Friday morning rolled around, I was surprised to hear my cell phone ring with Edward's ring tone. I answered it immediately. "Hello, Edward. How are you?"

"I'm doing okay. The peace and quiet is nice. I was calling to find out how you are."

"I had a talk with Alice yesterday. She isn't letting me wallow in my misery. She reminded me that I'm the one who chose to be changed. Just because you aren't here with me isn't reason to close down, according to her. She just doesn't understand that the reason that I changed was to be with you forever, though."

"Don't do that, Bella."

"Do what, Edward?"

"Try to lay a guilt trip on me for leaving. I know full well that you intended for the two of us to be together for an eternity. I am not the one who messed that up, Bella. Twice, Bella. Twice. I thought that we had worked things out, and on the same day that you promised me that you would never.... Oh, never mind. I didn't call you to rehash this all over. I just wanted to hear your voice. Good bye, Bella." He hung up the phone.

I had half a mind to hit redial, but I instinctively knew that he wouldn't answer if I did call, so I hung up the phone and left Jasper and Alice's room and walked back to our room. I shut the door and leaned back against it. I went into the bathroom and took a long hot shower, then I came out and dressed in an Alice approved outfit for school. I met the others downstairs, keeping my eyes downcast, not wanting to talk to anyone about the phone call. I just wanted to be left alone with my thoughts. They respected my wishes, and nobody spoke to me until we got to school.

We went to gym, and the girls and I changed into our gym clothes. Today, however, instead of playing dodgeball, Coach Mitchell had us all sit in the bleachers. He explained that twice a year, we were supposed to have fitness testing done. It would be comprised of sit-ups, followed by push-ups, followed by a one and a half mile run. All of the coaches were in the gym and were going to help observe the testing. We were to pair off into boy-boy and girl-girl teams. Jasper and Emmett paired off, and Alice and Rosalie paired off. That left me alone to find a human to pair with. It wasn't long before a human that was in all of our classes with us came up to me and offered to be my partner. She said that her name was Summer, and that she really didn't have any friends who would pair with her. I told her that it would be fine, and when Coach Mitchell told all of the guys to go to the floor, that they would be going first, Emmett and Jasper joined them. When he blew that whistle, Emmett began his sit-ups. Jasper was counting for him. When the whistle blew again, the coaches came around again to record the number that the guys had done, and when Jasper told him that Emmett had done 125, he was astonished.

"Did he really, or did you over count?"

"Are you accusing me of being a lier? I do not lie, sir," Jasper said with indignation in his voice.

"Okay, then, Emmett Cullen, 125."

Coach Mitchell then told the guys to switch places. He stood by Emmett and Jasper. Jasper started when Coach blew the whistle. Emmett counted. When Coach blew the whistle to stop them, he asked Emmett how many Jasper had done. Emmett told him that Jasper had done 142. Coach Mitchell was stunned. He had just sat there and watched Jasper do them, and he had seen with his own eyes that Jasper was blowing the others in the room away. When all of the scores had been recorded, Coach Mitchell told them to switch positions and get ready for the push-ups. Jasper was counting for Emmett, and Coach Mitchell was standing by them. They began when he blew the whistle, and stopped when he blew it for the second time. Per Jasper, Emmett had done 151 push-ups. Coach Mitchell just stood there with his mouth opened. He called one of the assistants over and told him to count along with Emmett when Jasper did his push-ups. They again started with the first whistle, and they stopped with the second. Emmett told Coach Mitchell that Jasper did 138 push-ups, and the assistant confirmed it. They were both stunned. The next highest score was 90 for the sit-ups and 78 for the push-ups.

They allowed the guys to go into the stands and told the girls to take the floor. Summer and I took positions next to Alice and Rosalie. We did the same as the guys. Alice's sit-ups were 120, Rosalie's were 110, and mine were 118. Summer did 30. When we changed to push-ups, Alice scored 78, Rosalie did 58, and I did 90. Summer did 10. Again, we were scrupulously watched. When we were given a ten minute rest, we were all led onto the running track outside. We were told the number of laps that we were to make, and the whistle started the run. The five of us stayed together for the first of the three laps, soon outdistancing all of the rest of the class. Then Alice told us that the boys should be able to run faster than we could, so Alice, Rosalie, and I backed off of the pace just a little bit. We continued to stay together as a group, however. We easily lapped some of the stragglers during the second lap, and by the third lap, we had lapped the entire class. When we crossed the finish line for the third time, one of the coaches hit a stop watch and called out a time. Another coach wrote down the time and handed it to us. We then walked to another coach who took our time and recorded it into his book.

Then instead of sitting down and watching the others take the rest of the time to finish their laps, I started running again. I loved to run since I'd been changed. I was no longer the clumsy teenager that I used to be. I was a graceful runner, and it felt good to have the wind in my hair. I wanted some time to think about what Edward had said this morning, without my siblings invading my thinking time, so I ran. I caught up with the group and passed them again. I just kept going, for the fourth lap, and the fifth, and the sixth. When I'd started the seventh, Emmett joined me.

"Thinking about Edward's call?" he asked, quietly.

"Yeah, I was."

"Want to talk about it?"

"No, not really."

"You do realize that you have started your seventh lap, and you aren't breathing heavily."

"No, I guess that I didn't."

"Enough of the class has finished that they are watching you pretty closely now. It is probably time that you called it quits."

"Okay. No problem." I quit running and started walking across the track to where the rest of my family was stretched out in the grass surrounding the track. When I walked up, I pretended to be breathing heavily, but not panting. I sat down beside Alice.

"Are you okay?" she asked.

"Hunky dory," I replied.

Coach Mitchell blew his whistle and told everyone to go inside and change. We made our way back to the locker rooms, and I changed into my clothes for school. Before I was completely changed, the bell rang. We had to hurry, and we were almost late for our next class. We had a test in basically all of our classes that day. Alice and I took them without any problem. We were sure that we scored perfectly on each of them. When the day was over, Emmett drove us home to what I knew was going to be one of the longest weekends on record.

On the drive home, I could tell that Alice had a vision. Jasper took her hand into his, and when she came out of it, she refused to tell us what she had seen. She just looked at me with sorrow in her eyes. "Alice, out with it. I know by the way that you're acting that your vision has something to do with Edward. Tell me, please," I begged.

"No, Bella, what gives you that idea?" Alice asked me, refusing to look me in the eyes.

"Because you won't look at me for starters. Because you have this pitying look on your face. Come on Alice. I know that you're lying, and you know what kind of heartache lying gets us into. Tell me the truth, Alice."

"Bella, Okay, yes. Edward has made a decision. He is going to see Tanya."

I felt as if my heart had dropped right out of my body. I hadn't met Tanya, yet, but I so knew who she was. She was a succubus who had wanted to get her nails into Edward for the past 100 years. She was in my opinion an evil vampire who didn't care who she hurt as long as she got her claws into his pants. He knew this, and he had done everything in his power to avoid her since he had been in love with me. As far as I knew, he hadn't even seen her since right after he had met me and had gone to Denali to fight with himself about draining me as his singer. He knew that I was afraid of the way that she acted around him, and that I didn't want him to be around her unless the rest of our family was there as well, especially me. Now, he had decided to go there, by himself, against my wishes, knowing that as soon as the decision was made that Alice would have a vision and tell me. He had willingly chosen to do something to hurt me. Was he getting back at me? Was his plan to sleep with her? To get even with me for sleeping with Jasper? Was he trying to hurt me intentionally?

I silently unbuckled my seatbelt. I stood up in the back of the Jeep, and I put my hands on the roll bar. I stood in the seat, then I pushed off of the side of the Jeep, casting myself onto the side of the road. I landed lithely on the side of the road and ran into the woods which were bordering it on each side. I continued until I was blocked by a small subdivision, and I had to run at human speed through it, having no idea where I was, just wanting to be alone with my thoughts.

While I was running down the street at human speed, I heard someone call my name. It was Summer. She was outside, in one of the yards, walking her dog. I pulled up in front of her house. It was a nice, mid-level, one story ranch house with a porch and a two car garage. A young child was playing in the front yard with a tricycle on the sidewalk. Summer came to the side of the road. The dog wasn't happy to be in my presence. It kept pulling at the leash, trying to get away from me. I felt sad that most animals seemed to fear our nearness, as if they knew that we were a lurking evil.

"What are you doing in my neck of the woods?" she asked me. "Aren't you a good way from your home?"

"You know where we live?" I asked her back. Usually, the people didn't know where the Cullens lived until Alice had decided to throw parties. I doubted that she would be throwing any more parties. Those were for the human Bella who loved Edward, not for the vampire Bella who cheated on Edward with her husband. No, Alice probably wouldn't be throwing any more parties any time soon.

"Well, when the biggest mansion in town, which is owned by some unknown family is suddenly opened after being deserted for so many years, it is kind of hard to miss."

"Yes, I guess that it would be."

"Anyway, you never answered my question. What brings you slumming?"

_It is still a free country, isn't it? Can't vampires run anywhere they choose?_ I wanted to say, but instead, I said, "I was just looking for new places to run. The same ole' route gets tiresome after awhile."

"Yes, you like to run. You really out did everyone this morning. I overheard Coach Mitchell talking about asking you to join the track team."

Oh, shit. Now that's just one more thing that I'm going to get into trouble with the others for. I just can't do anything right. "Well, I can't do that. I have other obligations. Look, I really need to get back to my run before I cool off too much."

"Oh, of course. I didn't mean to interrupt. It's just nice to have someone to talk to on occasion," she said.

"Anytime," I answered before I thought it through. Great, another thing that I've done wrong. Would this day never end? I picked back up my human run through the subdivision, and thankfully, I wasn't stopped again. At the end of the subdivision was a trailer park. I could see the blessed forest on the other side. All that I had to do was get through the trailer park without being seen. I took a deep breath and started in. As luck would have it, I of course ran into Kurt. He was sitting on the step of a grimy, dirty, dented trailer. He had his head in his hands. Coming from inside the trailer were the not so quiet sounds of a fight. It was plain to anyone within a ten foot radius that the man inside was drunk and was taking something out on the woman inside.

Edward's words came back to me. _"Your father isn't a nice man, and he isn't the best example of how to treat a woman. In fact, one day, he will end up killing your mother if he continues to beat her like he did last night." _I walked up to Kurt. I must have startled him because he jumped when I said his name. "Kurt, why are you sitting there letting this happen?"

"Go away, Bella. This isn't your business."

"The hell it isn't. This is everyone's business. He's going to hurt her."

"He'll hurt her worse if anyone interferes. He'll kill her."

"Has anyone ever called the police?"

"No one has the guts to do that. He'll kill her, then he'll come after them. You don't know him. He's evil."

"What is your address?" He told me. I took out my cell and called Charlie who I knew was working to day. "Charlie, this is Bella. Could you and your partner come to," and I gave him the address from memory. "There is a domestic dispute going on, and the guy sounds like he is going to kill the woman. Please hurry."

"Bella, what have you done. I told you that he'd kill you."

"Let him try. It's harder to do than you might think," I told him. "Stay out here, please." I opened the door to the trailer and walked in, closing it behind me. I looked around the place. Underneath all of the debris caused by the fight, the place was immaculate. Everything was in its place. I looked into the kitchen, and I saw the man and the woman. He was about six feet tall with a large muscular frame weighing about two hundred and eighty pounds. He was shirtless and had tattoos distributed all over his upper back and shoulders. She was petite, about five feet, five inches tall and weighed all of a hundred pounds soaking wet. Her dress, old but obviously well cared for, was ripped down the front. Her face had new bruises and her lip was swollen, cut, and bleeding. There was also a trickle of blood coming from her nose and a cut above her left eye which was also swelling. He had his mouth on her bared left breast, and I could see the teeth imprints from where he'd bitten her. He was in the process of lifting her dress and unbuttoning his pants when I rushed into the kitchen.

She was crying, "No, please Curtis, don't do this. I don't feel well. Please."

He hit her with a closed fist again, opening the cut above her eye further, causing it to bleed even more. "You don't tell me 'No' bitch. You are my whore, and you will do what I say, when I say it. Do you understand me? I said, Do you understand me?"

He pulled his fist back to hit her again, when I grabbed the fist and pulled him around to face me. "What the fuck?" he yelled.

"It's not nice to hit a lady," I said quietly, still holding his right arm.

"Just who the fuck do you think that you are?"

"I'm her guardian angel. I'm here to make sure that you never touch her again," I said as I took his arm and twisted it back, forcing the shoulder out of its rightful place in its socket. His scream echoed through the trailer. Still holding onto his now dislocated arm, I pulled him back into the living room to sit on the couch and wait on Charlie to arrive.

I sat down beside him. He was barefoot. I spoke to him in a very low voice, one that only he could hear. I told him that I was going to break one toe for everything that I saw that was injured on her body. He just laughed into my face, then he spit on me. I took his pinky toe on his right foot. I quickly snapped it in two. His face went fire engine red, but he didn't scream. "That was for the first cut above her left eye."

I took his fourth toe on his right foot. I snapped it in two. He couldn't keep in the scream that time. "That was for the second cut to her left eye."

I took his middle toe on his right foot. I snapped it in half. He screamed again. "That was for the swelling above her left eye."

I took his second toe on his right foot. I snapped it in half. This time he only groaned. "That one was for her bloody nose." He was whimpering by now.

I took his great toe on his right foot. "Hmm, this one is going to be harder to break. Don't worry, though, Curtis, I'm up to the task." I took the toe and snapped it in half. It made a very unique popping sound when it broke. I'm not sure that I've ever heard anything that sounded like it anywhere before. "That one was for her busted lip." He couldn't help but to scream out with all of his might. The sound could have wakened the undead. Wait, the undead don't sleep. I need a better analogy. Well, I'll have to think of that another time. I have more toes to break.

I picked up his left foot. He was sweating sheets by now. I took his left pinky toe and snapped it. "That one was for the swollen lip." He had tears streaming down his face.

I took his left fourth toe and snapped it. "That one was for one of the bite marks on her left breast. Now, how many bite marks does she have, I wonder. Now, don't you get up. You just sit there like a nice boy while I go count her bite marks, okay, sugar." I got up and went over to Kurt's mom. There were 5 bite marks total. I leaned down to her and said, "Don't worry, ma'am. The police are on their way, and he will never hurt you again."

"Oh, Curtis, you are being a very bad man." He was on the floor, in a small ball. He had thought that he could walk with broken toes. Little did he know that one actually needed their toes to walk. He should have paid more attention in school. I lifted him up by his dislocated shoulder and placed him back on the couch. He screamed in agony. "That little act of defiance will cost you two extra broken bones."

I took his left middle toe and snapped it. I knew that I'd have to hurry. Charlie would be here soon. I also snapped the left second toe and the great toe. That made up for the next three bite marks. "Okay, Curtis, I now owe you for one bite mark and two more for not minding. Do you ever beat Kurt for not minding. Do I need to look at him and see if he has any injuries?"

Curtis shook his head with a passion. I took his right hand. "Breaking your fingers just won't do. I think that I'll break those hand bones, so that you will learn a valuable lesson." I took his right hand and broke the second, third, and fourth bones in the hand proper. They made quite a satisfying pop. "This is your lesson. When you get out of jail, if you get out of jail. If you are allowed to come back here, to this house, you will never lay a hand on either Kurt or his mom. If you do, I will find out about it. Next time that I'm here, I won't be breaking small bones. I will be breaking leg bones and arm bones and back bones. Am I understood?" I looked at Curtis in his eyes, and he looked terrified at me. "Now, you're story when the police get here is that you broke your hand when you hit your wife. You hit your feet on the edge of the bed in the dark last night. Am I understood. I know where you live, and I can track you down. I can smell you in the dark. You can't escape me, and if you make me mad enough, I will kill you. I am fully capable of doing so with the flick of my wrist. Do you understand me?" He nodded.

I heard the police cruiser pull into the trailer park. Soon I heard them pull up to the right trailer, and Charlie got out. He asked Kurt if Bella were here, and Kurt said that I was inside. Charlie opened the door to find me sitting on the couch. His partner went immediately to the woman in the kitchen and radioed for an ambulance. Charlie came to me. I stood up and gave him a hug. "How are you doing, Charlie," I asked.

"Not too bad, Bells. I love my new house, and the job is fun. I had forgotten how much I like street work. Not so much paperwork. You remember how much I liked that. No more eighteen hour days. I actually get to watch more of the games. Might need to hire a maid soon, though."

"I'll come by and see if I can get things in order for you. It shouldn't take that much time," I said, breaking the hug before his partner came into the room.

"Bella, what is wrong. You seem down."

"Yeah, just some problems on the home front," I told him as Kurt walked into the trailer. "I'll come by later and talk to you about it. I've been trying to keep you out of it, but I guess that it's time to bring you up to date."

"Anytime, Bells, anytime. You know that my door is always open for you."

"I know Charlie. Anyway, this is Curtis. He was attempting to rape that lady in there when I stepped between them. He has a right dislocated shoulder, and I think that he broke some bones in his right hand the last time that he hit her in the left eye.

Charlie brought Curtis' hands around to the front and hand cuffed him. He read him his rights, and Curtis refused to answer any questions. The ambulance arrived and loaded up Kurt's mom. Charlie's partner, who he introduced to me as Billy, had also called the Department of Human Services to come and take custody of Kurt until his mom was released from the hospital. As they drove away, Charlie and Billy started to walk Curtis to the police car. He had one mighty limp, on both feet. When they asked him what was wrong, he told them that he had jammed his toes into the bed last night and injured his toes. They basically carried him to the police car. Charlie asked me if I would get home okay, and I told him that I was running. He offered to come back and get me, but at that moment, a canary yellow Porsche turned into the trailer park lot. Billy's eyes got big.

"That's where I recognized you from. We pulled you guys over a few days back. How do you know Charlie?" Billy asked.

"I met him a while ago," I said. "We just hit it off."

"You'd better watch it, man. She's jail bait," Billy said with a twinkle in his eyes.

"That's so gross that you're offensive. Besides, she's taken. By the way, where is Edward?" Charlie asked.

"That's part of my long story, Charlie," I said as I went to get into the Porsche. Jasper and Alice were in the car. I climbed into the backseat and put on my seatbelt.

Billy came up to the driver's side window. "Fancy meeting you guys here. How's is going, Jasper, isn't it?"

"Pretty well, I guess. Hi, Charlie. How are you doing?" Alice asked.

"Good Alice, and you?" Charlie asked. Alice had always been Charlie's favorite Cullen.

"A little stressed lately, I guess. I'm sure that Bella will explain everything during her talk with you tonight," Alice said.

"Oh, will you be cooking for me, too, Bells?" Charlie asked.

"Sure, Charlie, what do you want? Let me guess, fish?" I asked with a grin on my face.

"Bells, I haven't had fish since I moved here. If you could make me some real fish, I'd love ya forever," Charlie said.

"Fish it is, then. What time do you get off?" I inquired.

"I get off just as soon as we write up this guy," Charlie said.

"Okay, I'll go to the supermarket and see what I can catch," I said. "Bye, Charlie." The others told him bye, and he and Billy got into the patrol car and drove off. We followed them out of the lot, and Jasper drove me to the supermarket, or this town's excuse for one. We all went inside, and I went to the frozen fish area. They had some decent looking catfish fillets, but the rest of their fish selection was lacking. I'd have to order a variety of some good fish that Charlie would enjoy from the internet.

Jasper then dropped me off at Charlie's house. I went to the place that I knew that he would hide his extra key. Yep. It was there just like I knew that it would be. I unlocked the house and went inside. I told Jasper and Alice that either Charlie would bring me home, or else I would run. Their oversight duties for the night were over. I then took the groceries to the kitchen. I put the fish into some warm water to speed the thawing process. Then I took the ingredients and did my best to mimic his friend Harry Clearwater's fish fry breading mixture. I knew that it wouldn't be the same, but I always tried since Harry had passed away six years ago. Then I went to Charlie's bedroom and changed the sheets on his bed. I started a load of his laundry and started cleaning up around the kitchen. When I finished cleaning the kitchen, I went to the den. He had discarded beer cans and pizza boxes strewn all over the place. I gathered up the garbage and took it out. Then I went upstairs to his bathroom and gave it a really good cleaning. Charlie was right. Either I needed to come over once a week and give his house a good cleaning, or he needed to hire a maid. I figured that my time was so full of things to do, and I was never bored, that I could easily fit time into my busy schedule to clean Charlie's house. It was too bad that I couldn't do it during the night when I had nothing better to do. Maybe he would go on night patrol soon.

When Charlie walked in the door, I had the fish in the oven, the french fries cooking, the salad prepared, the first load of clothes in the dryer, the second load of clothes in the washer, and the house looking much cleaner. He came into the kitchen where I was sitting and gave me a big hug.

"I've missed you, Bella. I can't even begin to tell you what it means to me to have you back in my life."

"Awww, you just miss your cook," I jested with him.

"That, too," he admitted, taking a deep breath and licking his lips like a little boy. "You didn't have to clean up, you know."

"I didn't mind. It gave me something to do to keep my mind off of things."

"Are you ready to talk about it?"

"No, not really, but I guess that now's as good a time as any. Have you put your gun away?" I laughed.

"Yes, do I need to get it out again? Is there someone who has done something to you?"

"No, I just didn't want you to shoot your only daughter. Yes, people have been hurt, but it is all my fault. Daddy, I've done something horrible, and it's hurt the people that I love."

"You're eyes are still golden. You haven't slipped in your diet. I'd have heard about a murder," he said gazing into my eyes.

"No, Charlie. The Cullens are really forgiving when it comes to mistakes in diet. Carlisle and Rosalie are the only ones besides me who has never slipped up from time to time in their history."

"Even my Alice?"

"Yes, Dad, even Alice and Esme. They have all failed at one point or an other."

"Well, if it wasn't diet, then what did you do?"

"Wait one second. Let me get your supper." I took the fish out of the oven and got him some of the french fries. I put his salad in front of him. I then quickly washed all of the cookware.

"Okay, Bella, no more stalling. Out with it."

"Dad, this isn't easy for me to talk about, especially to you."

"Bella, you know that you can tell me anything. I'm your father, and I'll always love you no matter what mistakes that you make in life."

"Okay, here goes nothing. I cheated on Edward. I had an affair."

"You did what? I thought that Edward was your soul mate. He was the only one in life for you. He was the reason that you wanted to become a vampire. How could this happen? Who could draw you away from Edward?"

"Edward is my soul mate. He is my everything, but I've developed some strong feelings for someone else, too. He makes my dead heart race, and he makes me smile. He excites me and makes me want to jump into his arms. He dazzles me, and I want to be with him, too."

"Is it that boy at that trailer park where you were this afternoon?"

"Kurt? Oh, God No! He is a thorn in my side. I was just out for a run and just happened on the scene where his dad was beating his mom. I had heard Edward say that he had seen in his mind the beatings that she had endured and that his dad would probably end up killing her. I couldn't let that go on. No, Dad. I'm definitely not in love with Kurt."

"Then who, Bella. Who has gotten you so turned around that you don't see your love for Edward clearly anymore."

"Jasper," I whispered.

"As in Alice's Jasper," my Dad said, also whispering.

"The one and the same. Now you can see why I've screwed up everything so nice and royally. It happened the day that you two pulled us over. Jasper was really tense. When we got home, Emmett really laid into him about getting pulled over. You know Emmett; it was all in good fun, but it really got Jasper's goat. Jasper attacked Emmett, and it took Edward, Alice, and me to get him off of him. When Jasper realized what he'd done – Emmett was injured, somewhat severely – he ran off into the forest. When nobody made to follow him, I yelled at them for not caring and went after him myself. We had a long conversation about his feelings and his past as a vampire. Did you know that he was changed during the Civil War? Anyway, we talked all night. The next morning, we found a lake with no houses, just a lake in the middle of the wilderness. We swam all day, just playing around. When twilight came, one thing led to another, and we made love on the bank of the lake."

"Oh, Bella. What did you do? Did Edward find out?"

"Of course Edward found out! I told him what happened, Dad. That night, I went home and Jasper left. He felt like he couldn't be around me, going back to just being my brother. He used the excuse of the fight with Emmett to leave. Of course, with Alice's visions, that was a complete bust. Anyway, I went back to the house and called Edward out. We went into the forest, and I told him what had happened with Jasper. He told me that he couldn't deal with the situation, and went back inside the house. I stayed where I was until Monday morning when Esme came outside and got me. She made me get cleaned up and go to school. During lunch, Emmett talked to Edward, and we actually made some progress towards working things out, but when we got home, Carlisle had convinced Jasper to come home and all things went to hell in a handbasket. Edward attacked Jasper, and when I got between them to separate them, Edward started hitting me. Jasper fought Edward off of me, then they got into another fight, this time worse. Carlisle and Emmett broke the second one up, and Edward fled to his room. Jasper and Carlisle checked on me, and I was okay. The others left Jasper and me alone, and we started kissing again. We left the house and ran into the forest where we made love a second time."

"Oh, Bella, you didn't."

"Yes, Charlie, we did, and Edward caught us naked in each others arms. He got upset, rightfully so, and left the house. Later that night, he called me to meet him and go talk. We met about three a.m. and talked for a little while."

"So you two were the Cullens who were caught making out in the abandoned parking lot. I just knew that it had to be you two. I was just so proud that my daughter was shirtless and braless with her boyfriend at that hour of the morning."

"At least they didn't know that Bella Hale is Charlie Swan's daughter here," I pointed out. We never got caught doing anything like that in Forks."

"That's because you two didn't do anything like that in Forks, Bells. Isn't it?"

"Yeah, Dad, that's right. We never did anything like drive around at three am in Forks."

"What were you doing at three am in Forks?"

"I was sleeping," I assured him.

"Do I want to know what Edward was doing at three am in Forks?"

"Probably not, Dad," I said, taking his hand.

"Okay, ignorance is bliss, but you were a virgin when you married him, weren't you?"

"No, Dad. I wasn't."

"What do you mean? You weren't a virgin when you married Edward? When did he take advantage of you? How do you kill a vampire? I will track him down and kill him!"

"Charlie, will you listen to yourself? I was a virgin when I married Jacob, but Jacob and I were married for over three years. He didn't wait that long to consummate our marriage, Dad."

"Oh, yeah. I see what you mean. Okay, Bells, I'm sorry. I don't know what came over me? Anyway, finish your story."

"We were doing okay with each other until we were trying to be intimate with each other, when Edward freaked out on me. He left me and has been on the run ever since. Now, today, I found out that he is on his way to Alaska to see Tanya."

"Who is Tanya?"

"She is a vampire who has been trying to get into Edward's pants for the past fifty or sixty years. She is supposedly one of his friends, but she has been unrelenting in her efforts to take him to her bed. He has told me that he is very uncomfortable when he is around her, and he makes a point to never go around her without another member of his family present with him at all times."

"And he is on his way there at this moment?"

"Yes, according to Alice, he is."

"I wouldn't worry about Edward, Bells. He hasn't ever given you any reason to not trust him."

"Neither had I, Dad, and he is very hurt and angry at me. I don't want to borrow trouble, but what if he is going there to get even with me?"

"I don't think that Edward has a mean bone in his body. I don't think that he has any intention of trying to get even with you, Bells. That just isn't in his nature. If he is going to see this Tanya, then it is because she is a friend, and he needs an objective person to talk with, not someone to have sex with. Bella, he waited how many years for you?"

"He waited about one hundred years for me."

"If he waited that long for you, he isn't about to give that up, just for spite."

"Thanks, Dad. You have made me feel so much better. I'm sorry that I've disappointed you."

"Bells, what you and Jasper have done is wrong. You've hurt both Edward and Alice. I can't support your actions, but they don't make me love you any less. You've made a serious mistake, and you are paying for it. It looked like Alice and Jasper have made amends, after all, they both came and picked you up this afternoon."

"Yeah, they are doing pretty good. They've been together for about sixty or so years. They've been through a lot in those sixty years. They are working on their relationship with me."

"It looked like they are trying hard. They seem to be supporting you pretty well to me."

"Yeah. They are the best. Emmett is on and off. Rosalie won't even speak to me. Esme is being great. She is trying to be supportive, and Carlisle is cool towards me. He is, of course, on Edward's side, and I don't blame him. Edward hasn't done anything wrong."

"Well, hang in there, Bells. I think that it will all work out. Trust your husband. Give him the space that he needs to work through this. Don't smother him, and he will be back to you soon."

I gave him a big hug and thanked him for the advice. I left the house, and when I went outside, Alice was waiting for me in the Porsche. "Well, how are you feeling after your talk?"

"I don't know. He says that I need to trust Edward to do the right thing, but, Alice, I know how he has talked about Tanya in the past. He has told me that he never wanted to be around her without someone else from the family being with him in order to try to negate her advances. I don't know what kind of message he is trying to send to me."

"I think that your Dad is on the right track. You have to trust Edward. I am wondering if this is some test for your trust in him. Don't blow your top. Trust Edward."

"That is all that I can do, Alice. That is all that I can do. I don't have any right to do anything else. I've already proven that I'm the one that can't be trusted."

"Come on, let's go home."

I nodded. Alice and Dad both made sense. I knew that Edward had never given me a reason not to trust him, and in my heart I did trust him, with my life. I also loved him with my life and my soul, and bottom line, I knew that he loved me the same way. I just hoped that it was enough.


	26. Chapter 26

**Disclaimer: Stephenie Meyer owns it all.**

**Chapter 26 - Denali**

Alice drove me home after my talk with Charlie. The others were waiting for us to come through the door. Emmett had gotten it through his mind that we needed to go to the movies that night, and Alice and I were going to make us late to the last showing of the evening. I told them to go on ahead without me, but they were insistent that I come with them, so I put on an outfit that would pass Alice's inspection, and we all climbed into the Jeep. With Emmett's driving, we made it with time to spare. We bought our tickets, and foregoing the candy and drinks, went straight into the theater taking our seats. I, out of habit, reached out to take Edward's hand when I sat down, but when I realized that he wasn't with me, my partially exuberant mood rapidly took a turn towards sourness. I didn't want to be here, the fifth wheel in the theater where Emmett would be the only one really enjoying the Transformers 2 movie, but the family wanted me there, and they had done so much for me, I would do this small thing for them.

Strangely enough, I found myself watching the movie. It had some really good action scenes in it. It wasn't over the top like I thought that it would be. I found my mood lifting, and I was enjoying the film when my cell phone started to vibrate. I started not to look at it, but on the off chance that it would be Edward, I pulled it out of my pocket. I was stunned when I saw that it was Edward. I jumped out of my seat and made my way out of the theater. Just as soon as I was out of the door, I answered the phone. "Hello, Edward. I'm sorry that I took so long to answer. I was in a movie."

"Oh, who were you with?" he asked, bitterness in his voice.

"Everyone. Well, except for Carlisle and Esme, but all of the others. Emmett wanted to see Transformers 2."

"Oh, I see. Well, I'd better let you get back to your movie."

"No, Edward, I'd much rather talk to you. How are you?"

"I'm still angry. It seems that the more time that I have to think about what happened, the angrier I get. I just want to strangle you, Bella, for what you did to me, to us. I waited on you for right at one hundred years. I kept myself pure for you. I gave myself to you and only to you. I've never even touched another woman. Hell, Bella, I've never even kissed another woman other than my mother, and that wasn't on the lips. And I trusted you, Bella. I trusted you with my heart! And you took my heart and crushed it!" While he was talking to me, my chest was getting tighter and tighter. I was finding it hard to breathe. I started walking towards the front of the theater and eventually out of the door. I walked over to the Jeep and leaned over against the front fender, fearing that if I didn't lean against something, I would fall to the ground. "You ripped it out of my chest and threw it onto the ground and stomped it until it was mush, then you spit on it! Why? Why, Bella, why? Did I not pleasure you enough? Was I not attentive enough? Did I not pay you enough attention in our bedroom? Was I not experienced enough? I thought that we were learning each other together. I thought that I was pleasuring you. Were you faking it with me? Were you lying to me in our bed as well?" I heard him gasp for breath. He had been speaking so fast that he hadn't been breathing the whole time. I heard him fall to the ground, and I did the same, sliding down the side of Emmett's Jeep.

"No," I whispered, knowing that he could hear me. "I never lied to you. Even after what I did, I never lied to you. You were a very good lover, Edward. I enjoyed our love making, and when we would discover another position or a little movement that would give each other pleasure, it was like a child discovering a Christmas tree for the first time. I cherished the joy and amazement that would be displayed on your face when the way that you touched me would make me cry out your name. The fact that you waited for me made it all that more special to me."

"But, you never waited for me," he growled.

"Edward, as much as this isn't what I want to say to you right now, you left me and told me that I would never be seeing your face again. You told me that I wasn't good enough for you or your family. I believed you. I thought that you were gone for good, forever."

"Bella, how could you believe that I could ever leave you? All of the times that I told you that I was in love with you. All of the times that I told you that you were my life."

"I told you all of the same things, and I never left you."

"No, you just slept with my brother," he said, bitterness in his voice.

"Yes, Edward, I did. I made a very big mistake, and unlike you, I can't take it back or fix it. I can't come back into your life and make everything right again. All that I can do is love you and wait for you to forgive me if you can. I have to trust that you'll do that in your own time. You've lived a very long life. You've seen more than I can imagine. You have to know where to place your priorities. I will continue to wait for you to come home to me. I'll be spending every minute waiting."

"I don't know when that'll be, Bella. I just don't know."

"Where are you?"

"Somewhere past Chicago."

"Why?"

"Don't, Bella!"

"Don't what?"

"Don't play games with me. I know full well that Alice has told you by now where I'm headed. I'm not stupid, Bella."

"I didn't ask you where you were going. I asked you why."

"I need to talk to my friend. I assume that you have no problem with that," he said with almost a challenge for me to answer him with anything but, "No."

"Edward, I know how you have felt towards her in the past, at least what you have told me that you have felt towards her in the past, and I don't understand why now, at this point in time, you suddenly feel that you need to talk to her alone."

"Don't you trust me, Bella?"

"Of course I trust you, Edward. I just don't trust Tanya."

"Well, that's just too bad, isn't it. Good-bye, Bella." He hung up the phone. I brought the phone down from my ear and turned the ringer back on. I closed the phone and put it back into my pocket. I stayed there, on the ground by the Jeep, until the others came out of the movie. I could hear them when the movie ended, laughing at the final scenes. Then, as they made their way out, I stood up, waiting for them to join me.

"Well, what did he have to say?" Alice asked.

"He just needs to talk to her. I should trust him."

"Do you?"

"Yes. But I don't trust her as far as I can throw her. Wait, I could probably throw her farther than I trust her at this point. I'll have to think of another simile. I trust her about as much as I trust Mike Newton to keep his thoughts about me clean and pure."

"So, what are you going to do?"

"I don't know. I need to show him that I trust him completely which means that I can't go after him. I just wish that there was a way that I could ensure that she wouldn't try to tempt him. Do you see anything new, Alice?"

"I see him arriving in Denali and going to their home. I see him sitting on the couch, alone, in their living room, running his fingers through his hair, when Tanya walks up behind him and puts her hands on his shoulders and starts rubbing them. She whispers something into his ear, and he starts talking to her. He just talks, and she listens, occasionally leaning over him to run a hand down his cheek and whisper something into his ear. When he finishes talking, he leans forward with his face buried in his palms, and she goes around to the other side of the couch and wraps him in her arms, pulling him into her embrace. They sit like that for hours, neither one of them moving. Then he pulls away. He sits up straight and says something else to her. She nods her head, and they both get up from the couch. He approaches her and hugs her to him for several minutes, then he breaks the hug, and turning, he takes her hand, and they walk outside and disappear into the forest. That's it. That's all that I can see. I'm sorry."

"Well, I'm sure that all of that was totally innocent. I trust Edward completely. I'm sure that they were just going to hunt or some other innocent thing. They were probably interrupted and wanted to go to a more private place to continue their conversation," I said after taking a deep breath.

"Bella! What alternate universe are you living on? If Tanya were to do that to Emmett, there would be no way that I'd think that it was innocent, and she hasn't been trying to get into _his _pants for the past seventy-five years," Rosalie said.

"But, Rosalie, I trust Edward. He is still the most innocent and pure soul that I've ever met. I don't think that he would cheat in a million years," I said.

"He didn't think that you would either, did he? And see how wrong he was?" Rosalie asked, rubbing salt into my already open and raw wounds.

"Rosalie, there's no reason to bring that back up. We're all readily aware of what happened. Bella doesn't need to be reminded of it every other sentence," Emmett said. "I'm sorry, Bella, but I happen to agree with Rosalie, though. I don't think that Alice's vision is putting Eddie in the most favorable of circumstances."

"Okay, guys, I know, okay. If I try to look at it objectively, I know that it doesn't look good, but I know Edward. He is a good man. He is angry right now, but I don't think that he is angry enough to do something so vindictive as to sleep with Tanya just to get even with me. He doesn't even like her. In fact, he loathes being around her, so why would he put himself in the company of someone that he despises just to get even with me for something that I did that hurt him? I don't see it. Anyway, it doesn't really matter one way or the other, does it? It's not like I can stop him. Come on, let's get out of here." I climbed into the Jeep, and the others got in with me. Emmett drove us home.

The rest of the weekend went by without any more word from Edward. I kept my cell phone with me, just in case, but it never rang again. I found, not for the first time since Edward left, that most of my life was centered on him. With him gone, I had nothing to do to keep me occupied. The others had hobbies or jobs to keep them entertained. I needed to find a hobby. I searched the internet several days before I found something that interested me. While I was in college, several of my classmates had played a game called EverQuest II. They had tried to get me interested in the game for several years, however, with my commute and my homework, I had never given it a chance. Now, I had all of the time in the world. We had a state of the art computer, so I had no doubt that I could play the game. The only problem was that I needed to use a credit card to subscribe to the gaming service every month. I knew that we were trying to not use the credit cards. Instead of using our credit card, I asked Alice to go with me to Concord where I bought several prepaid credit cards and put five hundred dollars on each. That way, I could put a credit card on the account and not have it traceable to our home.

When I arrived back at home, I downloaded all of the current game and updates. Then I started a new character. I played her all of that weekend, never needing to take human breaks. That was a cool thing about being a vampire. I leveled my character up, and by the end of the weekend, I had met a couple of people who were playing as well. I was able to lose myself in the game, and for the hours that I played, I was able to forget my problems.

When Monday morning came around, I logged off for the first time. I showered and got dressed. We rode to school as usual, and when we parked, my phone rang. The others walked away while I answered my phone.

"Hello, Edward."

"Hi, Bella. How are you doing?"

"I'm missing you. How are you doing? Have you come to any conclusions?"

"Yes, I don't think that I am so angry right now. I'm more hurt, again. I think that I cleared a path through several miles of forest a couple of states ago. It felt good to be able to take my frustrations out on something physical."

"Where are you now?"

"I'm entering Alaska. It won't be long now."

"Before what, exactly?"

"Before I see my friends again. Before I am able to talk to someone that I know can be objective."

"Then you will be talking to someone besides Tanya?"

"What do you mean? Tanya is my friend. There is nothing else between us."

"Not from her lack of trying. And don't even think that she can be objective. She has been trying to break us up since we first got together."

"I'm not willing to discuss this with you, Bella."

"Edward, _we _need to be able to discuss things. Our marriage is falling apart. You are shutting down on me. You won't talk to me about our problems, yet you run clear across the country to talk to your _friend_ who, up until now, you have refused to be alone with. Then you tell me that you don't see anything wrong with this scenario, and I need to trust you. Edward, I do trust you, but I want our marriage to work. Why don't you come home. We'll move away from the others for a short while. Just you and me, we'll live separately, and we'll get our marriage back on the right track. Think about it, okay."

"First of all, Bella, I have no intention of being alone with Tanya. I know her much better than you do, and it offends me that you don't trust me enough to know what I'm doing. I need to talk to my friends, and that doesn't mean only Tanya. Secondly, I'm not the one who put our marriage in jeopardy. I'm doing my best to overcome the immense amount of hurt that you inflicted upon me. I gave you a second chance, and you went straight back into his arms. I don't know that I can forgive that. Thirdly, I have no intention of leaving my family, not at the present time anyway."

"Edward, you have left your family. You've been gone a week already. They miss you terribly."

"They know that I'll be back. The only question in my mind is whether you'll be there when I return or not."

I couldn't believe what he just said. He was serious. I could tell from his tone that he wasn't joking. He may base his return to his family on whether they kicked me out or not. I would have no where else to go. I didn't even know anybody else in the vampire world. What would I do? I didn't have any money. I would be all alone in the world, and I would live forever. I couldn't think. I knew that he was waiting for an answer, but what could I say to that? "I see. I thought that we were forever, Edward. I am your soulmate. You are my soulmate. That is still true, no matter what has happened. You won't be happy without me."

"But what happens if I won't be happy with you? What if I decide that every time I look at you, all that I see is betrayal? If I'm going to be unhappy either way, I think that I'll choose to be happy without the constant reminder of what you did. At least without your infidelity in my face every day, I can remember the good times that we had together. I've been remembering them for the past day. That is why I call you, because I've been remembering the good times, but as soon as I hear your voice, the infidelity comes right back to the surface. I see you in Jasper's arms. I see him on top of you. Thanks to Alice, I will never be able to rid myself of those memories."

"Edward, may I please fly out there and let us be alone together for a little while. This is way too important to throw away. Our marriage is way too important to throw away. Our love is way too important to throw away. Please, Edward, please! Let us work on this together."

"_Our_ love, _Our _marriage. Bella, why didn't you think of those things when you were with Jasper? You could have saved _Our_ love and _Our_ marriage by just saying, "NO" and not sleeping with him, but you couldn't do that because _you were in love with Jasper._ I remember what you said, Bella. I remember that you said that you loved Jasper, too, just differently than you love me. Is that still true? Do you still love Jasper, Bella, or is your love wishy-washy?"

"Edward, I do still have feelings for Jasper. He makes me feel happy and wanted. He makes me feel loved. He still pulls me to him, and I want to hold him and take him in my arms and wrap him up tight and feel his arms around me, protecting me from all of the pain that I'm feeling. But, I do not love him the way that I love you. He has even said so himself. What I'm feeling for him is different from what I feel for you. What I'm feeling for you is all encompassing and all consuming. You are the meaning of my existence. You are my world. I don't want to live in this world without you. I need you to breathe. You are my rock. Because you are hurting, I am hurting. I want nothing more than to help you through this time. I want nothing more than to have _us_ back."

"Bella, how do you expect me to get us back when you clearly love another?"

"Edward, there is room in my heart for the feelings that I have for your brother. I will never act on those feelings again. It is getting easier to be in the same room with him. Alice is helping, and so is the rest of the family, with the exception of Rose. She is still pissed. We still don't touch, not even innocent touches. I'm afraid that it might spark other feelings that I'm trying so desperately to control. But all in all, we are doing good. We're never left alone, by mutual understanding, even if it isn't stated, and the family is being great about that. The topic of what happened isn't brought up, except by Rosalie, and Emmett tries to squelch that. They all know that we don't need constant reminders. Everyone knows what happened, and we are all trying to get past it. Edward, please come home. We all need to work on this together. Let the family help you the way that they are helping Alice and Jasper and me."

"I thought that Alice told the family that this was between the four of us."

"I think that she has found that the family's support for her has been helpful after all."

"I don't know. I haven't ever been the one to air my dirty laundry in front of the family. I tend to try to figure out things for myself."

"Edward, what dirty laundry have you ever had, besides dating a human? And, by the way, you did share that dirty laundry with the family, and they all supported you, with the exception of Rosalie. Do you see a pattern here?" I laughed. He sort of chuckled as well.

"Well, Rosalie is her own person, isn't she?"

"Yes, that she is. Back to the point, though. When have you ever had dirty laundry to air?"

"Well, I did feed from humans at one point."

"And when you came back to the family, they knew, and they supported you, didn't they?"

"Yes, I guess."  
"You see, Edward, that's my point. Your family is there for you. They always have been, and they always will be. You need to come home, and let them help you through this situation. I will move in with Charlie for a while if I need to. Just come home."

"I'll think about it."

"Promise?"

"Yes, Bella, I promise."

"Well, I can't ask any more of you than that. Be safe, okay."

"I always am."

"I love you, Edward, and I always will."

"I love you, too, Bella. I just hope that is enough."

"Me, too. I've got to go now. The bell rang ages ago."

"I'm sorry. I don't want for you to get into trouble."

"No worries. I don't care. It will be worth it if our conversation has helped us at all. I truly hope that it has. Everyone misses you terribly, even Rosalie." I chuckled.

"Now, I find that hard to believe." he laughed in return.

"Really, she does. It gives her one more thing to blame me about." I laughed.

"Well, now it makes sense. I do love you Bella. It has been good talking to you."

"You too. Will you call me later, after school?"

"I'll think about it. Maybe."

"Okay, bye then."

"Bye, love." He hung up the phone. I closed my phone. I waited in the parking lot for the next bell to ring. It only took about fifteen minutes. I went to my locker where Alice caught up with me. I replayed basically the entire phone call to her, and she hugged me around the neck while jumping up and down.

"You made some definite progress today. I'll try to look and see if the vision changes during class. I hope for all of our sakes that it does."

I hugged her back and made it plain that I was crossing my fingers. We grabbed our book and notebooks and headed for Algebra II. We took our seats, and Alice immediately went into a vision. It lasted until after everyone was seated and Mr. Mosby had started class. I was beginning to worry about what was in her vision because it was taking so long for her to finish with it. She finally snapped out of it after ten minutes or so. I started to ask her about it at vampire volume, but she shook her head and told me that she would tell me at morning break with the others. We began work on our homework and as usual, finished it before class was over.

I had never been so anxious for the bell to ring in my life. I rushed to my locker to put away my Algebra book, then I rushed outdoors to our area. No one bothered to come near our area anymore, so we could have conversations without worrying about being overheard. Alice joined me, but the others were running late. She refused to begin without everyone being there. I was on pins and needles. I didn't know if what she was going to say was going to be good or bad, if it was going to make me worry more about what he was going to do, or if it was going to relieve my worries.

The others finally showed up. Their excuse was that somebody in their class had misbehaved, and the teacher had made everyone stay after. When they had gathered around, Alice told them that she'd had another vision about Edward. He did still go to Denali. He arrived there about seven tonight. He still went into the living room, but this time, when he was sitting on the couch, Irina was also present in the room with Tanya and him. Tanya was sitting next to him, and while he told his story, both of them listened. When he got to the part about what had happened, Tanya put her hand on his knee, and he got up from the couch and walked over to the fireplace. She got up and followed him, putting her arms around his neck, and he pulled them away from him. He told her that he didn't come to them for her advances, but for their advice. They had had many relationships, and he wanted to know how he was supposed to get over the hurt that Bella had caused him. Tanya told him that there was no way that he should forgive you, that you had proven yourself to be untrustworthy, and a skank. She told him that you were no better than a two penny whore, and that you'd proven that you'd jump into bed with anyone who would have you. Then she said that Jasper was the one that he'd found out about. How many more times had you cheated on him that he didn't find out about? Then she wrapped her arms around his neck again and told him that you were no good for him, and that she would take care of him if he would only give him a chance.

He pushed her off of him and said that you were not anything like what she'd said. He said that you were honest with him from the very beginning, that you never tried to hide what had happened, even though you could have gotten away with it. He said that you had made a mistake, but that you loved him, and he loved you. What kind of husband would he be if he couldn't forgive you for what had happened? After all, nobody was perfect. He knew that he had made mistakes as well, and while none of his mistakes had been of a sexual nature, he was sure that they had hurt you just as badly. You had never had a problem forgiving him of his mistakes, and now he was hurting you all over again. He then told Tanya thank you. She asked him for what, and he said that he was thanking him for making him see how totally he was screwing up his life, and that he was leaving on the first flight out of there to come home to you to beg you to take him back. Everything else, the two of you could work out with the help of your family. Then he reached out and gave Tonya a kiss on the cheek and told her that coming to Denali was exactly what he needed. He knew that Tonya would be able to show him what an asshole that he was being, and he would get his mind back on the right track.

I started jumping up and down. I couldn't help it. Edward was coming home to me, and he would be home soon. I couldn't wait. I knew that we still had issues that we would have to work through, but he was coming home. I hugged Alice, more tightly than I should have. She kind of squeaked before I let her go. Then I hugged Emmett and Rosalie. I automatically went to hug Jasper, but he pulled away from me. I stopped short. The smile left my face. I wanted to cry for the fact that what we had done had lost me my friend. I couldn't even hug him when I was happy. He tried to wash me with a wave of happiness, but it couldn't replace the hole in my being that his absence had torn into my soul. I knew that we could never again be lovers, but how long would it be until we could be mere friends? How long would it be until I could touch him innocently? Ever? I walked away from the group and stood my myself, my head hanging low.

Alice came up to me after a couple of minutes had passed. In vampire volume, so that none of the others could hear what she was saying to me, Alice said, "Bella, I don't know what to tell you to make this any better. I know that the two of you still have feelings for one another. It is so obvious in the way that he looks at you and in the way that you look at him. It is hard for me to look at my husband when I know how much he feels for you. Sometimes, I just want to tell him to just take you and go. Get it over with. Let the two of you be together. Forget about me and Edward. But then, I know how much he loves me and how much you love Edward, and I know that the two of you wouldn't be happy together for an eternity. So, I tough it out, and I hope beyond hope that the feelings that the two of you share will fade over time. However, the one thing that I can't do right now is see the two of you touch each other, even innocent touching. I've asked Jasper to comply with that one request, and he agreed. I'm so sorry that it upsets you. I understand that all you were going to do was hug him, just like you did with the rest of the family, but, bottom line, Bella, if you had hugged Jasper, my husband, would you have been able to have let him go like you did the rest of us, or would you have clung to him? Felt at home in his arms? Put your head on his shoulder? Would he have clung to you or felt at home in your arms? Would he have run his fingers through your hair? You see, there is no innocent hug between the two of you. It had the potential to have meant so much more. That is why Jasper pulled away from you. Because I asked him to respect my wishes and not touch you. I'm sorry, Bella. That's the way that it has to be," and she walked off.

I turned and watched her move away. I looked at Jasper, and he was looking at the ground. He wouldn't meet my gaze. I wanted to look at his eyes, to see the truth of what Alice had just told me. He never looked up, even after Alice returned to his side. I started walking past them. No one made a move to stop me. I walked past the parking lot, and into the woods that bordered it. I started running when I was out of sight of the students. I just kept running until I reached the house, then I turned north. I took the path that Jasper and I took that fateful day. I ran until I reached our lake. I laid down on the bank and sobbed. I remembered our day, every second of it, from our swimming, to our making love on the bank. Who knew at that time that it would cost me so very much. I had almost lost my husband, and I did lose my best friend.

I stayed there until my phone rang. I had no idea that I had towers out this far from nothing. I answered it. "Hello, Edward."

"Hi, Bella. I'm so sorry."

"What do you have to be sorry for?"

"Because I've acted like a jerk. I've been so hateful for the past week. Can you ever forgive me?"

"Edward, there is nothing to forgive you for. You've done nothing wrong. You have every reason to have acted the way that you've acted. I was in the wrong, and you have had to deal with some very painful issues. I don't hold that against you."

"Bella, I'm coming home, if you'll have me."

"Of course I'll have you. When will you be back? I'll tell the others so that they won't worry so much. Esme and Carlisle will be so relieved. They've been so worried about you."

"My flight leaves out of Anchorage at five o'clock in the morning. I should be arriving sometime around eight or nine o'clock tomorrow night."

"You're flying home? That's great! I can't wait to see you again. I'll be waiting with open arms, that is if you want to touch me again."

"Bella, of course I want to touch you again. You're my wife. I intend to make this marriage work. I'm so sorry that I've treated you so badly. I intend to make it up to you, if you'll let me."

"Edward, you don't need to make anything up to me. Just come home to me, and we'll pick up and take things as they come. Just come home. I miss you so much. I'm so alone here. Your family is trying hard to act as if they don't blame me, but I know in my heart that they all do, even Alice. I think that they kind of expect this kind of thing from Jasper, so they don't really blame him for what happened, but they do blame me. Nobody has said it in so many words, except for Rosalie, but I think that they all feel that way."

"Why do you feel that way, love?"

"It's nothing. Forget that I ever mentioned it. It's not worth the time or the energy to worry about it."

"Nonsense, Bella. If you feel that you are being unfairly singled out, then I want to know about it. What happened was not entirely your fault."

"Yes, but it was enough my fault. Just let it drop. Forget it. Just get home and hold me in your arms and tell me that everything is going to be okay. Please."

"I'm on my way, Bella. Just as soon as I can be there, I will get there. Why don't you make us some reservations in Concord for about a week. Make them under Mr. and Mrs. Edward Cullen. Ask Jasper for our wedding license and your married driver's license. Pack us both a week's worth of clothes and as soon as I take a shower, we'll leave."

"Oh, Edward, that sounds like a dream come true, but what about school?"

"We can drop out for the rest of the year as far as I'm concerned. Right now, we need to work on us and our marriage. Nothing else matters to me at the moment, Bella. We'll just have Esme home school us. How does that sound?"

"That sounds fine to me, Edward. I like the sound of spending all of my time with you. I'm ready to get to know you better myself."

"Okay, tell Esme then. We can apply for any home school program that you like, and we can work through it at our own pace, together."

"What if the others want to do the same thing?"

"Bella, don't take this the wrong way, but I really couldn't care less what the others do at this point. All that I care about is you and me and our marriage. If it means that we go away for a time, then so be it. Whatever it takes to get us back on the right track is what I'm willing to do."

"I love you, Edward. Thank you."

"For what, love?"

"For loving me."

"As if I could ever stop. You are my soul mate, Bella. I will love you till the day that I burn."

"I'll see you soon. I need to get back to the house and make some arrangements."

"Where are you, love?"

"In the woods. I haven't had the best of days."

"What happened?"

"It doesn't matter. What matters is that you are coming home. The day is now the best, well one of the best, days of my life."

"Why won't you tell me? What are you trying to hide from me?"

"I'm not trying to hide anything. I just didn't want to upset you."

"Upset me. Bella, we can't have any secrets from each other."

"Okay. Today, in Algebra, Alice had a vision about your visit with Tanya and Irina. She said that Tanya was going to say some nasty things about me to you, and you were going to realize that you loved me and were going to come home to me. I got really excited and started jumping around. I gave her a big hug, and then I gave Emmett a big hug, and Rosalie, and then I turned to Jasper to give him a hug. He was just next in line, and I didn't think anything of it. He was my friend, and I was extremely happy. As I started to hug him, he stepped away from me. It startled me, then the realization came over me that not only had our affair ruined things for Alice and him and you and me, but that now he and I couldn't even be friends. I went over to the side of the building and was just running things through my head; you know, wallowing in self-pity. Well, Alice came up and told me that she had asked Jasper not to touch me under any circumstances. That she isn't comfortable with me even hugging him as a friend or touching his hand like I would Emmett or Esme. I guess that she doesn't trust me to even look at him."

"Bella, I don't know what to say. I trust you. I know that you won't do anything like that again. I have to believe that of you because if I don't, then we will never be okay. I don't know how I feel about Jasper at this point. I think that I can trust him. I don't think that he wants to hurt you any more than you have already been hurt. I know that he still has feelings for you, and it is those feelings that make me trust him around you, at least I think so. I may change my mind when I get home and read his thoughts, but that was my read before I left."

"Thank you, Edward. I do love you. Come home to me. I can't wait to see you again. I'm going to go now so that I can do the things that you asked me to. I'll see you soon."

"Good-bye, love. I'll see you soon."

"Good-bye, Edward. I love you." He hung up the phone, and I hung up mine. I said good-bye to my lake and started running towards home. It took me over an hour to get home, but when I arrived, I found most of the family in the den watching a movie. It was as if they weren't even concerned with my whereabouts. The only person to look up when I came into the den was Esme.

"I spoke to Edward about two hours ago." That got their attention. I guess that Alice had missed that conversation in her visions. They paused their movie and looked at me. "He said that he will be flying out of Anchorage at five o'clock in the morning. He should be arriving here about eight or nine o'clock tomorrow night."

"That's great, Bella. That's wonderful news. I'm so happy that he's coming back," Esme said. "It brings such relief to my mind. I've been so worried about him."

"He also asked me to ask you, Esme, about telling the school board that you are home schooling us. I don't think that he intends for us to go back to school."

"Whatever he wants. He knows that. Carlisle and I will do whatever he needs for us to do," Esme said.

I looked at everyone else in the room, and they all looked relieved that their brother was coming back. I felt as if I was in the way, and they would be happier if I wasn't around her. I moved over in front of Jasper. Everyone got really quiet. You could hear a pin drop. "Jasper, I need for you to do something for Edward and me. He asked me to get you to help me."

Jasper looked up, and his eyes met mine. "What do you need, Bella?" Alice elbowed him in the ribs. He looked at Alice with a frown on his face, then he turned back to me.

"Edward asked me to ask you for our marriage license and for my married driver's license. We will be going away for awhile as soon as he gets here."

Jasper got up from the couch. Alice tried to pull him down. "I'll go get it. Just tell me where it is," she said.

"No, Alice. I'll go get it. I promise you that I won't touch Bella. I'll try not to talk to her. I'll try not to look at her. Is there anything else that you want to demand of me?" Jasper said in a harsh voice, his anger at her restrictions evident to everyone in the room.

Alice huffed up, but she didn't say anything. Jasper walked up the stairs, and I followed him. He went into his study and walked to a wall safe. He put in the combination and opened the safe. He pulled out several packets of documents and flipped through them until he came to Edward's and mine. He looked through it and pulled out our marriage license and handed it to me. Then he flipped through it some more until he came across my driver's license under the name Bella Cullen. He handed it to me, this time letting his hand softly brush against mine. I looked up at him and smiled. "Thank you, Jasper. We really appreciate it." He nodded at me and shut everything back up in the vault. Then he looked at me one last time and headed back downstairs.

I went into our bedroom and sat down at the computer. I searched Concord for a nice hotel, one with a suite. What I actually found was better. A wonderful looking bed and breakfast. It was an old house in the middle of the shopping district. It had six suites, one of them perfect. I called them immediately, and to my surprise, the suite that I wanted was open. It had a queen sized bed in the bedroom, and a large sitting room, with a large bathroom with both a shower and a claw foot bathtub. There was also a small kitchenette which we would never use, but it didn't take up much space. The important part of the space of the rooms were the sitting area and the bed. I hoped that we would be using both of these areas a good part of the week. I booked the suite for the next two weeks, giving them one of my pre-paid credit cards to hold the room. I told the matron that we would be paying cash when we arrived. I also told her that we were on our honeymoon. She seemed excited to have us coming to visit with her.

I stayed in our room for the rest off the night just thinking about what I wanted to tell Edward when I saw him, what I needed him to know. I thought about our wedding. I thought about the first time that I'd seen him, how I'd thought that he'd hated me. How I'd researched "the cold ones," until I found out that he's a vampire, and how shocked he was that it didn't scare me away. I thought about how he would sneak into my room every night, just to see me sleep, and how safe I felt with him near. Then I thought about how I felt when he left me. I knew that I couldn't live through that again. We had to work things out. No matter what, I wouldn't live through losing him again.


	27. Chapter 27

**Disclaimer – Stephenie Meyer owns it all.**

**Chapter 27 - Concord**

I was so excited all night, that I couldn't stop pacing. I think that I was driving everyone crazy. When morning came, I dressed for school and went downstairs. I was so happy. Edward was coming home today. I could feel the excitement flowing through the rest of the family as well. I didn't have the heart to tell them that we were going away for as long as we were. I know that he told me one week, but I hoped that I could talk him into two weeks.

"Calm down, Bella. He'll be here before you know it," Emmett said, putting his hands on my shoulders and pressing down, preventing me from bouncing.

"I've already felt every second. He can't be here fast enough," I told him.

"You're acting like a newlywed," he grinned.

"Well, we basically still are," I smiled. "At least I'm hoping to make him think so."

"Good luck," Emmett said.

"Thank you," I said, glancing at Jasper who was looking down with sadness on his face. I knew that I shouldn't be talking about Edward's and my sex lives in front of Jasper because it hurt him to think of the two of us together, but I was so excited about seeing Edward again, I had let it slip. I knew that Jasper wanted for me to be happy, and he truly believed that Edward and I belonged together.

We piled into Emmett's Jeep, and he took us to school. I basically got through the day as a zombie, moving through the classes on autopilot, thinking that this would most likely be my last day in this school. I wouldn't miss the people, but some of the teachers were very nice. I thought that I would miss some of them. I continued to do my homework in class despite knowing that I wouldn't be back to turn it in. I didn't want to draw anymore attention to myself than necessary. Several times during the day, Alice had to tell me to settle down.

When the last bell of the day rang, I rushed to my locker and made sure that all of my books were neatly inside. I gathered all of my notebooks and personal items and rushed to the Jeep. I still beat the others. They laughed when they walked up and saw me waiting. "In a hurry for some reason?" Emmett asked.

"Just take me home, please," I told him, and he saluted me and climbed into the Jeep. The others piled in as well. The trip home took forever. I turned the volume of my cell phone back on in hopes that Edward would call between his flights. As soon as we pulled into the driveway, I jumped from the Jeep and raced to the house. I ran up to our room and made sure that I had packed everything that we would need. I went into our closet and pulled out a set of clothes that Edward could wear after his shower. I wanted him to be comfortable on our drive to Concord.

Then I started my pacing again. I was starting to feel more nervous than excited. What if he had gotten angry again? What if he had rethought things and decided that he really didn't want me anymore? The more that I thought about it, the more worried I got. By six o'clock, I was near panicked. My mind was flying all over the place.

I was brought out of my state of panic for a moment when there was a knock at the door. I thought for a moment that it might be Edward, but then I realized that it was still daylight, and he wouldn't be arriving until after dark. I went to the door and opened it. Jasper stood outside. I almost hugged him before I remembered Alice's restriction about touch.

"Hi," I said, my thoughts returning to the panic that had encompassed me just a few seconds prior.

"Bella. Stop it. Stop thinking whatever you're thinking. It is causing you unnecessary pain. He is coming home to you because he loves you. Calm down. Remember your last conversation," he said. He sent a calming wave over me.

I suddenly felt the anxiety melt away. I felt my fear melt away. I was left with a feeling of peace. "Jasper, what if he doesn't want me?"

"Is that what he said to you the last time that he spoke to you?"

"No. But, what if he changed his mind?"

"Why would he do that?"

"I don't know, but what if he did?"

"Bella, you have nothing to indicate to you that he has changed his mind. He loves you. He is coming home to you. You are ready for him to come home to you. You have reserved a romantic room for the two of you to spend time together alone, without the rest of us to interfere. Concentrate on what you want to do with him. Stop questioning his love for you." He sent a wave of lust towards me.

I felt warm all over. I started thinking of Edward, his body, his hands, his face, his lips, the way that his lips felt on mine. I moaned, and I started thinking of the way that I felt when his lips moved on my body, when they sucked on my breasts and pleasured me at my core. I groaned again, and this time, Jasper smiled. "That's it, darlin'. Keep those thoughts going. Keep imagining that he is here with you. Keep thinking of what you want him to do to you when you get to your hotel." He backed up and closed my door. I didn't get a chance to thank him before he was gone. I knew the sacrifice that he had made to take me to such a wonderful place in my mind. It had to hurt him to know that I was having such vivid sexual fantasies about my husband, not him, but instead of feeling guilty, I walked to the bed and laid down and continued to fantasize about Edward.

My fantasy was interrupted a minute later when I heard Alice's raised voice. "I don't care why you did it! You knew what I expected of you, and you did it anyway! Why, Jasper? Doesn't my love mean anything to you anymore?"

"Yes, Alice, it does, but you can't go on expecting me to live in the same house as her and continue to pretend that she isn't here. I can't do that any more than I could pretend that Emmett isn't here. We live together. I'm an empath. I feel what everyone in this house feels. I hurt when anyone in this house hurts, and I don't like to hurt."

"Especially when it is her hurting!"

"Even if it is her hurting. Alice, I would have gone to whoever it was hurting, Rosalie, Esme, even Carlisle if he was hurting the way that she was. Alice, I can't live with these restrictions anymore, who I can talk to; who I can touch; whose emotions I can help. If you still want to be with me, then you are going to do so without controlling me. I don't mind having someone in the room with us when she's in the room with me, but the rest is over."

"So, you cheat on me, and now you are giving me ultimatums?"

"No, not ultimatums. Conditions. I still love you, Alice, but I can't live like this anymore. I won't live like this anymore."

"Fine." Then I heard Alice stomp off to their bedroom and slam the door. I could only hope that she would think about what he'd said and realize that she was putting undue pressure on him. I wanted to go downstairs and apologize to him for causing their fight, but I knew that to Alice it would look like I was running to comfort my lover. I couldn't throw that ammunition onto the fire, so I sighed in relief when I heard Emmett pass through the hallway and down the stairs.

"Um, Jasper, are you all right?" he asked when he got to the bottom of the stairs.

"Yeah, Emmett, I will be. I'm sorry that you all had to hear that. We should have taken it out side."

"No, that's all right. We needed something to liven up the evening. It's not like Bella's pacing isn't getting old or anything," Emmett said, then he tried to laugh at his own joke, but even he couldn't force laughter out. "Look, really dude, if you need anything, just ask, all right. I know that these couple of weeks have been hell for you, and you look like you could use a friend. I know that you usually go to Edward or Bella for that, and since you obviously can't do that right now, I just wanted you to know that I'm here for you, if you wanted to talk or something."

"Yeah, it's just that, well, I know that we messed up, royally. I know that we can't be together that way ever again, yet it isn't something that I regret. I will always remember my time with Bella and treasure it."

"You really care deeply for her, don't you?" Emmett asked.

"Yes, I do. I don't want to give her up entirely. I know that Alice must be having other visions, or else she wouldn't be so adamant that I can't even see her, much less speak to her or even hug her when she is happy, like yesterday afternoon, when she found out that he was coming home. She hugged everyone, then when she got to me, I had to back-up. Alice wouldn't be doing this for any other reason. I have to believe that. She wouldn't be putting all of these rules on me out of spite, but Emmett, I can't live like that anymore. I can't pretend that someone that lives in the same house with me doesn't exist. Not when I feel her every emotion, and believe me, she has been going through an emotional roller coaster during the past week."

"I know that I couldn't do that either, and I don't experience everyone's emotions. At first, I was really angry at the both of you. How on earth could you two betray both Edward and Alice like that? I couldn't understand the way that the two of you felt about each other. I guess it is because I see her as a little sister that I have to protect, and I never saw you as someone that I had to protect her from. So at first, I was furious that you had taken advantage of our sweet, innocent Bella. No, don't interrupt. Then, Bella insisted that you gave her plenty of chances to back out, and she chose to go forward, so I became angrier at you, but I was also angry at her. I was angrier at you because you were obviously in enough control to walk away, and you didn't, but I was angry at her because she chose to be with you. Now, though, I just feel sorry for both of you. I see what the two of you are going through from day to day. How you struggle to be in the same room with each other and not to even acknowledge each other's presence. That has got to stop. The two of you are pulling the family apart just as much now as you were at the beginning of this situation. We all have to find a way to live together in the same house, and we can't do that if the two of you can't co-exist."

"I know that we can co-exist. The only problem is whether Alice and Edward can allow us to co-exist. Bella and I have no intentions of allowing our emotions or our actions get out of control again. I won't be jumping her the next time that we are alone in the kitchen. We would like to be able to have a normal conversation with the family, one that included both of us. We would like to be able to sit in the same room as each other. Hell, I'd like to be able to just look at her without Alice thinking that I'm making love to her with my eyes."

"Well, let her have her time with Edward, and when they come back, I'm sure things will get back to their normal baseline. He and she will have ironed out their problems, and hopefully, Alice will have calmed down quite a bit. We should be able to put this family back together, soon. That is what the rest of us want. We want things to get back to normal."

Just then, I heard a car slow down on the highway. It turned into the driveway. It was still too early for Edward, but it was a new car, not one of ours. I threw open the door and raced down the stairs, jumping Jasper and Emmett at the bottom of the staircase. I slid when my feet hit the hard wood floor on the first level of the house. Jasper grabbed my arm to keep me from hitting the wall and, with all likelihood, going right through it. He let go of me when I had regained my footing. I raced to the door and flung it open just as Edward was reaching for the doorknob.

I jumped into his arms, grabbing him around the neck. He initially looked surprised to see me, but then he wrapped his arms around me and hugged me tight. He walked into the house with me in his arms, not daring to put me down. "I've missed you," I whispered into his ear.

"I've missed you, too, love," he whispered back, as he walked towards the stairs. Emmett and Jasper parted ways to allow him to pass unimpeded. He climbed the staircase with me still clinging to his body, his arms wrapped tightly around mine in return. When he reached the door to our room, he nudged it open and carried me inside. Then he pushed it closed with his foot. Once inside of our room, he put me down and looked into my eyes. "Your eyes look tired," he said.

"They're alright now that you're home," I told him. "Everything is going to be alright, now that you've come home."

"Bella, we still have a long way to go. Things aren't perfect, yet. We have a lot to talk about."

"I know, Edward, but having a lot to talk about is a thousand times better than not having you at all. I feel like we have a chance to make it now. I feel like we are at least going to try which is more than I had two days ago. Two days ago, I had nothing worth living an eternity for. Now, I do. I have hope."

"Let me get my shower, and we'll be ready to go, okay, love?"

"Sounds good to me. I'll be waiting right here. You have a change of clothes right there," I said, pointing to the clothes that I had laid on the corner of the bed. He picked them up and carried them into the bathroom with him. I waited on the bed for him to finish. If he'd wanted company in the shower, I'm sure that he'd have asked for it. Since he didn't, I didn't want to push things.

"That feels a hundred times better!" he said as he came out of the bathroom, dressed in his clean clothes. "Are you ready to leave?"

"Ready, willing, and anxious to get out of here!" I told him taking his hand in mine. I grabbed one of our suitcases, and he grabbed the other.

"How much did you pack? Has Alice had a bad influence on you?" he laughed.

"No, I kind of packed for two weeks instead of one. We also have reservations for two weeks, just in case we decide that we want to stay a little bit longer. It keeps our options open," I told him. He laughed.

"I see. Doing a little bit of planning behind my back, are you?"

"No, really, I just wanted to keep our options open. If we are lucky enough to be having a great time, we might not want to leave. If we still don't have things worked out, I wanted us to have the option to stay a little longer if we needed to. It's just an option." He laughed again.

"Bella, it's alright. I'm not complaining. It sounds good to me. I'm just glad that you told me so that I could make sure that I had enough money to pay for it." He went to where our cash stash was and got some extra cash.

"Edward, don't you think that I would have already taken care of that? I already have enough money in my purse to cover the entire stay, sweetheart. I've taken care of everything. All that I need from you is for you to grab that bag and my hand, escort me to our car, and drive me away from this house."

"Your wish is my command, love." He pocketed the extra cash anyway. Then he grabbed the extra suitcase, took my hand in his, and walked me down the stairs.

Carlisle and Esme were waiting for him when he reached the bottom step. Esme stepped up to him and put her arms around his neck. "I've missed you, Edward, so much. Are you sure that you won't stay even the night?"

"No, Esme, Bella and I need some time to ourselves. We won't get that here. I think that is where we went wrong before, to many minds in the blend. Don't worry. We'll be back soon," he told her as he sat the suitcase down and gave her a one armed hug. He never let go of my hand. He just gave it a squeeze.

"Well, good luck, son. I wish you the best," Carlisle said.

"Are you not wishing Bella the best as well? Now I see what she meant when she said that these past couple of weeks have been trying. No one in this house has shown her an ounce of support, have they? I would be willing to bet Jasper either. How are we going to put this family back together if we can't accept that they made a mistake and forgive them? How are we going to put this family back together if they aren't a part of this family, if they are treated as pariahs or as outcasts? If that is the way that this family is going to treat Bella and Jasper, then I don't think that Bella and I are going to continue to be a part of this family. The family that I love and want to be a part of forgives and doesn't cast out its members for their mistakes. While Bella and I are gone, why don't the rest of you try to figure out if you want the two of us to come back or not, because if we come back and you are still going to treat Bella and Jasper like they don't belong in this family, then we will only be here long enough to pack our things and leave."

Carlisle and Esme looked stunned. They both stood there with their mouths open. Edward stooped to pick up his suitcase when Emmett, Rosalie, Alice, and Jasper came down the stairs. He moved aside to allow them room to enter the den. Emmett shook his hand and Rosalie gave him a hug. Alice just walked by him, but Jasper stood in front of him.

"Edward, I haven't really had the opportunity to talk to you, and I know that you and Bella are anxious to get going, but I wanted to tell you that I'm sorry that we hurt you, and I swear to you that I will never allow my feelings for Bella to get out of control again," Jasper said.

"Jasper, I appreciate your apology, but it can't change what happened any more than fighting about it could change what happened. I do want to talk to you about this, but not right now. Right now, I need to get things straightened out with my wife. That is my first priority. Once our lives are back where they need to be, I will want to talk to you. I deserve that much," Edward said, looking at Jasper with an expression on his face that I would not have characterized as friendly.

"Yes, you do, and I will be at your service when you are ready," Jasper said, backing away from Edward so that he could pass through the crowd and get to the door. I followed him outside.

He had a rental car which he had driven from the airport. He asked me to drive the Volvo so that he could drive the rental back. We put the suitcases into the Volvo, and I followed him out of the driveway and into the street. We made really good time on the trip into Concord. I followed him to the rental car return place, and he took care of the paperwork. Then he took over the driving while I took over the navigation.

We found the bed and breakfast easily enough. We left the luggage in the car while we went in to register. I took out our marriage license and my "Bella Cullen driver's license." We explained to the proprietor that we were unable to take a honeymoon prior to our move, so we were finally taking one now. She seemed genuinely happy for us. She took us upstairs and showed us to our suite and told us that breakfast was included in the price of the room. Breakfast was at eight o'clock sharp. Edward told her that we most likely wouldn't be making breakfast, and she smiled at us knowingly. She gave us two keys to our room and left us to ourselves.

I followed Edward back downstairs and took the luggage out of the car. I waited for him to park the car, and when he came back, we each carried one of the suitcases upstairs to our room. I took the next couple of minutes to unpack us, and then we fell into an uncomfortable silence.

He was sitting in one of the love seats in the adjoining living space, so I sat on the couch facing him. "Edward, I don't know where to begin. Please know that I love you so much. You are my soul mate. You are the reason that I exist."

"I'm only going to ask you the next two questions once more. Then I will never ask them again in my lifetime."

"Okay. I'll answer them as completely and as truthfully as I can."

"Do you love Jasper?"

I took a deep breath. I looked Edward straight in the eyes. "Yes. I have deep feelings for Jasper. He makes me feel things deep in my heart that take by breath away. When I hear his voice, my breath catches. When he looks at me, I melt."

"Do you love him more than you love me?"

"No, Edward. Not at all. When I'm with you, my heart flutters. When I'm close to you, my body trembles with the anticipation that you may touch me. When you touch me, my cells explode within my body, and I can't think because my brain leaps from reality into this alternate universe where I'm floating among a sea of fireworks which are going off all around my body. I'm inexplicably drawn to you, and if I were to fight it, I would cease to exist. Edward, God made me to love you. Why he also decided that I would feel strongly for Jasper, well, I don't understand that, but He made _me_ to love _you_."

"If you were to walk into a room and there were two beds. Jasper was waiting for you in one bed, and I was waiting for you in the other bed. You had to chose which bed you would go to. Which one would you chose?"  
I was silent for a minute. Why would he even put me in this situation. The were such different lovers. Each of them had such different styles of making love, and I loved each of them. I thought of the scenario. I thought of Jasper's hands on me, almost savage in the way that he took me. Then I thought of Edward's arms around me, gentle and loving, showing me such tenderness with every touch. "You, Edward. Your every touch sends chills down my spine, making me crave more. Your kisses alone make me wet for you. You glaze your fingers over my nipples, and I crave your mouth on them, sucking them. It's the anticipation for what comes next when we make love that I experience. It's the knowledge that you are all about me and my pleasure. I come first in your mind."

"If Jasper were here with you now, instead of me, and Alice didn't have her visions so that you two could get away with being together, would you be with him again?"

"No, Edward, we, he and I, agreed that we would never act on our feelings again. He belongs with Alice, and I truly belong with you. We don't belong to each other. We would like to be friends again. That is all that we need to be, and Edward, I do need to be his friend. I do need him in my life in that little way. Before this happened, he was my best friend, besides you, and I so desperately miss my friendship with him. I miss being able to talk to him. Please, please, see it in your heart to allow me to be his friend again."

"Bella, I am your husband. I am not your master or your owner. I am not here to dictate who you may or may not be friends with. I am not going to stop you from being friends with Jasper. In fact, I hope that he and I can soon be good friends again. I meant it when I said that I want our family to go back to normal. I want us all to be able to get past all of this unpleasantness and learn to support one another again. I want Jasper to come to your aid just like I want Emmett to come to your aid. I want you to go shopping with Alice and Rosalie again. I want all six of us to go out to movies and to go hunting together. I want all of us back."

"Edward, that is exactly what I want. Do you think that we can actually get it?"

"Yes, I do. We just have to work on Alice. I feel like she is the last holdout."

"Carlisle is still upset with me. I don't think that he has much of a problem with Jasper; he invited him back after all, but he doesn't seem to be able to get past my betrayal of you."

"He will. He just was upset that I left to figure things out. He took it out on you. I was listening to his thoughts tonight. He didn't even realize that he was treating you that way. He was sorry, and I feel like he will apologize for his behavior when we get back."

"Okay."

"Bella, love, I don't mean to beat a dead horse, but I need for you to understand how badly you hurt me. You ripped my heart out of me. You made me feel inadequate, as if I couldn't satisfy your needs. I made you wait so long before we made love, that I thought that now that we had, I wasn't good enough for you, and you had to turn to my brother to fulfill your most basic physical desires. I felt worthless, and to be honest with you, I fully intended when I left for Denali to let Tanya show me that I could fulfill her desires as a man should. It was only after I got there that I realized that I didn't want any woman except you, and being with Tanya wouldn't prove anything about my manhood."

"I do understand that it hurt you, and I understand why. If I could take it back, Edward, I would. If I could change time, there are several things about my past that I'd change, like not getting that paper cut. Then Jasper wouldn't have attacked me, and you wouldn't have felt it necessary to leave me. We would have remained a couple, and we would have gotten married instead of Jacob and me getting married. Then I wouldn't have hurt Jacob either. There is so much I would change if I was given the chance, but unfortunately, I don't think that I will ever be given that chance."

"No, unfortunately not."

"Bella, I forgive you for what happened with Jasper. I understand that you still have strong feelings for him, and I know that the two of you have agreed not to act on those feelings again. I hope that you can abide by those words, because I can't share you. You are at a point in your life where you have to choose, me or Jasper. It can't be both of us. If you choose him, I'll back away and give you two the space that you need to develop a relationship. However, if you choose me, I expect you to honor me as your husband. There can be nothing romantic between the two of you. No kissing, no hand holding, and especially, no sex."

"I choose you, Edward, and I accept those terms without hesitation. I just want Jasper in my life as a friend."

"I can accept that as well. I don't expect you to give up your friend."

"Thank you, Edward. That is more than I deserve."

"No, Bella. You deserve to be happy. As your husband, it is my job to see to it that you are happy for the rest of eternity. I take that job seriously. Now, why don't you come join me over here?" I got up from the couch and walked over to the love seat. I sat down next to Edward, and he pulled me into his arms so that I was leaning into his chest. He wrapped his arms around my waist and held me against him as he turned to sit sideways on the love seat, leaning down to lay us back some more. "Now, why don't you tell me about what has happened since I've been gone?"

I told him about the physical test that we did in P.E. and how we blew the whole school away. I told him how I continued to run, just thinking about Alice's vision, the one where he was going to go with Tanya into the woods. He grimaced when he realized that I knew all along that he'd planned on sleeping with Tanya. He laughed when I told him that Emmett had to tell me to sit down because I was making the students nervous with my continuous running. Then, I told him about running into Kurt's house and breaking up his parents' fight and his dad's toes and fingers. I told him about telling Charlie what I'd done and Charlie's reaction. He seemed surprised that Charlie had taken his side.

We talked about nothing and everything until three o'clock in the morning. Then we decided to take a moonlight stroll. We gathered our jackets and left the bed and breakfast. We walked down the silent streets of Concord, hand in hand, speaking only every now and then, mostly looking at the stars. We had been silent for a spell when a particularly bright shooting star blazed across the sky. We stopped walking and watched its path until it fizzled out.

"Did you make a wish?" I whispered.

"Yes, did you?" he answered. I nodded, thinking that my wish that our family would soon be back together was likely the same that he'd made. He put his hands on the side on my face and lifted it to look into his eyes. "I love you, Bella Cullen," he whispered as his lips lightly brushed mine.

"I love you, Edward Cullen," I whispered back as my lips responded back to his, moving so lightly against his as to barely be touching them. We stood there, in the shadows of a large oak tree on the edge of a park, kissing, but just barely letting our lips glide together for several minutes; I don't know how long. I'd lost track of time, when a man approached us out of the park.

"Give me your purse and your wallet, and you won't get hurt!" he said, holding a gun to the side of my head. Edward looked up at him in shock. Neither of us heard or smelled him coming up on us. We were too involved with each other to notice anything out of the ordinary. "Do as I told you or your girlie here gets her head blown off, you hear?"

Edward's face became one of rage. He growled at the man and bared his teeth. He moved so quickly that I had trouble following his motions. Before I could take a breath, the man lay dead on the ground, his neck snapped.

"Edward, what have you done?" I asked, panic stricken.

"He was going to rob us, then shoot me, and rape you. He's done this several times and gotten away with it. He was vile and dangerous. HE deserved to die."

"Maybe, but was that your decision to make? He couldn't have hurt either one of us. Why didn't you just tie him up for the police to find?"

"I don't know, Bella. He just made me so angry. He has gotten away with so many rapes and murders. I had to see to it that he never hurt anyone again."

"Well, come on then. Let's get back to our room. We definitely don't need the hassle of getting caught here." I took his hand, and we walked back to our bed and breakfast. We went upstairs to our room and sat back down on the couch.

"You're mad at me, aren't you?" he asked me.

"No, not mad. I just don't understand how it is so easy for you to take a life like that."

"Bella, I heard his thoughts. He had every intention to hurt both of us. He wasn't just going to rob us. He had done this to many people in the past. He would do it to many people in the future. He was the lowest scum on the planet. I've told you what I did in the past, how I searched for the dregs of society and fed on them."

"Yes, but you also told me that you felt that you realized that you were becoming just like them. You were a killer. You were judge, jury, and executioner all in one, and you knew that it wasn't right then. What makes it right now?"

"He was threatening you," he whispered. "I'm still not used to you being immortal, being able to take care of yourself. I had a flashback to when you were attacked in Port Angeles. He had a gun to your head. I had to take care of you. I'm sorry, Bella."

"Edward, it's okay. I understand. You were only protecting me, and I love you for it. Just promise me one thing."

"Anything, love."

"Next time, leave them for the police to arrest. Break their bones if you need to, but leave them for the police and the justice system."

"Yes, ma'am." He looked at my eyes. There was something about his gaze that was different. He was almost looking right through me, as if he were looking at me, but then again, not seeing me at all. "I almost lost you that day," he finally said, his voice barely above a whisper. "Those men were evil. I didn't think that I was going to find you in time. I was frantic with worry. Then I finally found the right street. It was all that I could do not to kill them right in front of you, but that would have given myself away. Then, our first date, how wonderfully amazing, even though you figured out everything. Even though you knew what I was, what we were. You didn't run away. I knew then that I wanted to spend the rest of eternity with you, but I wasn't willing to sacrifice your humanity. How shocked I was when you were."

He leaned over to me and rested his forehead against mine. Our noses barely brushed as his lips came closer to mine. I was barely breathing, as they ever so slightly caressed mine, barely moving against them, ever so slightly glazing by them, as his hands entangled themselves in my hair. I reached up and wound my hands in his hair, pulling him closer to me. I pushed my lips closer to his, kissing him with more pressure, catching his lower lip within mine, running my tongue over his lips. Before I could realize what had happened, he had caught my lower lip in his and his tongue had entered my mouth and was dancing with my tongue. We kissed like that until the sun rose through the window, framing us in her glorious rays. Edward took a deep breath after he broke our kiss, and pulling back a fraction of an inch, he gazed into my eyes again.

"Your eyes sparkle in the sunlight. I don't think that I've ever seen eyes that are more beautiful in all of my years on earth."

"I have," I whispered, "and they're looking right into mine." I reached my right hand around to his face and lightly touched the side of his left eye, causing him to blink. I rubbed my finger along his upper eyelid, then I reached up and placed a soft kiss on his eyelid. This effectively placed his face into my bosom. He took a deep breath, and he kissed the crevice between my breasts. I felt the moisture begin to pool between my legs. He took one of his hands from my hair and moved it around to caress my breast through my shirt. He continued to kiss my cleavage, what little of it showed above my sweater. I let my head hang back as I enjoyed his touch. Before long, his hand had worked its way under my sweater and he was rubbing its back across my bra, where my nipple was, causing it to harden underneath his attention. I groaned as my body responded automatically to his touch. My hands grasped his hair pulling on it to bring him closer into my body. He released his other hand from my hair and using both, he now pulled my sweater over my head, leaving me in my bra. The sun shone on my skin, making a rainbow in the living area. He paused, again looking into my eyes, then looking around at the beauty of the sparkle in the room. He reached around my back and unfastened my bra, releasing me from the confines of it. Then he picked me up and carried me to the bed. He laid me down gently in the middle among the pillows, making sure that I was comfortable.

Then he climbed into the bed with me, positioning himself to my side. He pulled me onto my side, facing him, and kissed me, more passionately than before. His hands automatically went to my breasts, caressing them, before he took one of them into his mouth, teasing my nipple with his tongue. I threw my top leg over his hip, drawing him closer to my body, trying to feel as much of him against me as I could. He immediately pulled back, placing distance between us. I sat up in the bed and looked at him. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to push you. I just got carried away. You were making me feel so good that I just wanted to feel more of you," I said as I wrapped my arms over my bare chest. "It's pretty obvious that you were feeling something, too."

"Yes, you were moving too fast for me. I still need to take things slowly with you. It doesn't matter how turned on I get, I don't think that you and I will be making love anytime soon."

"I thought that was the purpose of this mini-vacation, to get us back on the right track."

"And by "right track" you thought that I meant sex?"

"Yes."

"Bella, I need to be able to be in the same room as you without thinking hurtful things about you. I need to be able to look at you without wanting to rip you to pieces. Sex is the furthest thing on my mind at this time. Sex will fall into it's own place in time. Right now, I need to get back on the right track with you."

"I see." I got out of the bed and walked back into the living area. I picked up my bra and sweater and went into the bathroom and got redressed. I stayed in there for several minutes, trying to get over the hurt that he had just caused me. He was willing to fondle me, feel me up, get me all worked up, but he wasn't willing to follow through, to give me relief. I felt used and dirty. Never in my life had I ever felt so, so, tacky, so skanky. I had never been anyone's slut before, and I had no intention of being his now.

I walked out of the bathroom to find him still lying on the bed. He patted the bed beside him, and I shook my head. I went back into the living area and, after drawing the drapes, I sat on the couch again. After several hours, he gave up and re-entered the room, and noticing my choice of seating from last night, he sat on the love seat, facing me.

"Do you want to talk about it?" he asked.

"No, not really, but if we don't, we won't ever work things out."

"What just happened?"

"Well, you just used me, like a whore. I'm not your whore, Edward. I'm your wife."

"I think that I know that, Bella. Exactly what makes you think that I treated you like a whore?"

"You were feeling me up for your own pleasure. You had no intention at all of taking our activities any further. You had no intention of seeing to my needs after you got me hot for you. You didn't tell me that all you were going to do was to fondle me. I feel dirty and used. I've never been put in that position before. If I'm going to give myself to you again, then I expect for you to be willing to give yourself to me again. This isn't going to be a one-way street."

"And what if I say that because of you and Jasper that I won't be able to give myself to you again?"

"Then I guess that we're both in for quite a dry spell, aren't we? Either that or you divorce me and move on to someone that you can be with."

"What if I don't want anyone else?"

"Then you either have to decide if we are going to be married or just friends, because, if we are going to be married, I want a sex life with you. I want to be able to touch you and make love with you. I want to kiss you and take you into my mouth. I want every aspect of our love to be intact."

"I want that too, Bella. I just don't know when I'm going to be able to handle it. I don't know when I will be able to touch you in that way, or let you touch me in that way."

"Why not, Edward? What is it that has you so scared? Do you think that I'm damaged? Do you think that I'm different in some way? That I'll look different? That I'll feel different? Do you think that you'll feel a part of him still on me?"

"Bella, you're being ridiculous. I'm a doctor, for God's sake. I know that those things are completely ridiculous."

"Yet, you can't touch me. Do you think that vampires can get STD's? Do you want me tested? After all, Jasper has had several lovers in his lifetime."

"You're being ridiculous again. You know as well as I do that vampires can't get sick, in any way, STD's included."

"I'm running out of ideas here, Edward. What are you so afraid of? I know that it's not your anger like you said. You wouldn't be back here if you hated me every time you looked at me. You wouldn't be back here if you wanted to rip me apart every time you saw my face. You wouldn't have told your family that they needed to forgive Jasper and me if you despised my face. You wouldn't have told Jasper that you would talk to him when we get back if you hadn't already forgiven us. There is something else that is bothering you. Why won't you tell me?"

He sat there for the longest time, his eyes refusing to meet mine. When he finally spoke, his voice interrupting the silence, I jumped in my seat. "I'm afraid that I won't compare."

"What?"

"I'm afraid that I won't be as good as he is. He has had so many years of experience with so many women. I'm afraid that I won't be able to pleasure you the way that he did."

I got out of my seat and walked over to the love seat and sat down beside Edward. I took his head in my hands and lifted his head so that I was looking into his eyes. "Edward, please don't think that. You are an excellent lover. You give me such great pleasure. The very first time that we made love, you showed me exactly how much you loved me, and each and every time since that first time has been full of your love and has been amazing. Honey, you don't need some over the top technique when you make love with me. Your love for me makes our love making timeless and special. Never once have you left me wanting more. There is no need to compare you to Jasper because there is no comparison. You are my husband, and you complete me the way that no one else can."

"Do you mean that? Or are you just saying that to make me feel better?"

"Edward, if I was going to lie to you, don't you think that I would have lied to you about what Jasper and I had done, or about my still having feelings for him? Why would I choose to lie to you now if I have told you straight out that I still love him? Isn't that more of a deal breaker than telling you that you are as good or better a lover than he is? Why would I all of a sudden start lying to you?"

"Would you?"

"No, Edward. I wouldn't. I haven't ever lied to you, and I have no reason to begin lying to you now."

"So, Jasper has some over-the-top technique?" he snorted.

"Not in so many words. He is more aggressive, that's all."

"More aggressive, how?"

"Nothing in particular, just not as gentle as you, not as compassionate."

"You mean that he takes what he wants when he wants it?"

"Why are we talking about this? I thought that this was in our past."

"It is, but do you like it a little aggressive?"

"Maybe," I said, a little hesitantly, not knowing where he was going with this.

He picked me up from the love seat and carried me to the bedroom. When I squealed, he popped me on my bottom. "Uh huh, be a good girl, now," he said, putting me down beside the bed. He reached over and took off my sweater. Then he unfastened my bra and removed it, tossing it across the room. Next, he unfastened the button on my blue jeans, and finally, he slipped both the jeans and my panties down my legs. Then he picked me up out of them and put me on the bed. He climbed onto the bed, and I reached for his shirt. I pulled it over his head and tossed it across the room. Then I reached for his jeans. I unbuttoned them and pushed both them and his boxers down over his hips, releasing him from their confines. He kicked them off. They landed somewhere near the bathroom door. Then he crawled on top of me, placing himself between my legs. He started kissing me hard, his tongue seeking out all of the hidden recesses within my mouth. I allowed my tongue to do battle with his. His hand immediately went to my breast which he cupped and then started to kneed. He would squeeze it and then go to my nipple which he would tweak, making it harden under his grip. Then he left my mouth and took its sister into his mouth sucking on it, drawing it into his mouth, flipping my nipple about with his tongue. I writhed under him, pressing myself into him, wanting more. When he bit my nipple, I thought that I would come right then. I yelled his name and thrust my hips into his groin, feeling his erection press against my wetness, but I couldn't gain position on him to take him inside of me. Instead, I wrapped my legs around his hips and pulled him closer to me, not allowing him to pull away. I ground his erection into my clit, rubbing myself against him as he worked my breasts. When he bit my nipple for a second time, I did come. I called out his name and pressed myself tightly against him as I rode out my first orgasm of the day. As I relaxed a bit, he began kissing me again, hard and hungrily, and he shifted his hips and pounded himself into me. I immediately came again, clenching around him. It was so unexpected, that I bit into his tongue. He growled at me, and pumped into me even harder and faster, not letting me come down. I climbed higher and higher until I was lying there like a rag doll, and he was still thrusting harder and faster into me. When he came, he let out a roar and called out my name, collapsing on top of me. We came down together, over the next ten minutes or so.

Neither of us were able to talk for the longest time. We were just concentrating on breathing, trying to get that right. When we were finally able to breath again, we just laid there, in each other's arms, holding each other tight, not wanting to let go. Another barrier to our happily ever after had just been broken, and neither one of us wanted to spoil it by speaking. At sundown, by unspoken agreement, we silently got up and got dressed. We wanted to go for another moonlight stroll, this time, as man and wife, again.


	28. Chapter 28

**Disclaimer: Stephenie Meyer owns it all.**

**Chapter 28 – Broken Ties**

We spent the rest of our two week vacation / honeymoon trying to get enough of each other. We were unsuccessful. We stayed in the bedroom for most of the daylight hours, and once the moon rose, we would take walks in the park, looking at the stars, hoping to find another shooting star to wish upon, the way that we did on our first night in Concord. Though we never saw another one, it wasn't for a lack of trying.

When the morning came to check out of our home away from home, our proprietor was sad to see us go. She said that we were a nice couple, and we hadn't given her or her staff any problems at all. She wished us well and told us to have a safe journey back to our home. Edward packed the car, and we drove away, both of us looking back at what was a place full of wonderful memories, the place where we put our marriage back together.

The place that we were going to, however, was one of unknown relationships. Edward and I were becoming more and more apprehensive the closer that we got to Lebanon and our chosen home. We tried to get our minds off of what we may be facing when we returned by talking about other things. We talked about our plan to homeschool. Edward told me that many of the students would assume that I was pregnant. I hadn't even thought of it that way, but after I did think about it, I realized that he was right. We would be the talk of the town. We would just have to be seen around town with our siblings. We wouldn't want Carlisle's reputation to be ruined. They couldn't say that we were dropping out because of our grades. We still hadn't missed one problem in any of the classes.

All too soon, we were turning into our driveway. Edward parked in our usual spot, and we got our suitcases out of the trunk. We walked to the door with a sense of trepidation in our hearts. I followed Edward inside. We were immediately met by Esme who enveloped us in her arms. She told us to put down our suitcases and when we did, she took us by the hand and led us into the living room where our entire family was waiting for us. They were sitting as couples, and we took our seats in the love seat that was unoccupied.

"Edward, Bella, welcome home," Carlisle said. "Bella, I've already spoken to Jasper, and now I'd like to tell you. I'm so sorry for the way that I've been treating you for the past month. I know that I've been distant from you and less than supportive. I don't have an acceptable excuse for my actions, so I won't give you one. I just want to apologize to you and tell you that from this point on, you are my daughter, and I plan on treating you as such. Please forgive me."

Edward looked at me and nodded. "Carlisle, thank you for your apology. I accept," I said. I got up from my seat and went to him. He rose and gave me a hug. It was filled with love and acceptance. "I've missed you, Carlisle," I said as he drew me closer. I finally withdrew from his hug and returned to my seat next to Edward. He took my hand into his own.

"Bella, Jasper and I have had several talks since you two have been gone. I realize that the restrictions that I tried to place on him were, let's say, a little extreme. I love Jasper with all that I am, and what happened between the two of you was made even worse by the fact that you were my best friend, and I felt that you betrayed me twice: first as a woman cheating with a married man, and second as my best friend betraying our friendship and trust. I couldn't very well take all of my hurt and anger out on you, so I took it out on Jasper, not that he didn't deserve some Alice vengeance as well. I placed unreasonable demands on him, trying to prevent him from having any one on one contact at all with you. I realize that was wrong. The two of you must have contact if you are to live in the same house. I have his word that your relationship is over, and I trust him. I would like to hear that from you as well if you don't mind," Alice said.

"Alice, I've been so concerned about repairing my relationship with Edward, that I haven't really even tried to address the hurt that our actions have caused you. Alice, I am so sorry for hurting you. You did not deserve the pain that Jasper's and my actions caused you. I am in a position to tell you that what happened between Jasper and myself will not happen again. We both care to much for Edward and for you to ever let our feelings for each other surface again. We both see the hurt that we have caused, not only the two of you, but the entire family because of our relationship, and we can never allow that to happen again. However, Alice, while I am sorry for the hurt that we caused you, I do want my friendship with Jasper back. I can't live in the same house with him and pretend that he isn't here anymore. I'm so thankful that you can see that. Please, if you can, find it in your heart to forgive me for my part in what happened."

"Bella, I do forgive you. I just am still so angry at both of you. I don't understand how you two could let this happen. Jasper swears that he didn't manipulate your emotions, so you willingly went along with what happened. I don't understand how you could betray me like that!" Alice said. Jasper put his arm around her shoulder and pulled her in closer to him.

"Alice, darlin', we weren't thinkin' much about you and Edward at that time, darlin'," Jasper said in my place. He gave her a peck on the cheek.

"Bella, do you still have feelings for Jasper?" Alice blindsided me.

"Alice, do you think that is a question better answered behind closed doors? Between just the four of us?" Edward asked.

"No, Edward, we are here to get everything out into the open. If we are to live as a family, then everything needs to be put on the table and sorted through. Yes, Alice, I still have feelings for Jasper. However, I have no intention of ever acting on them," I said in front of the group, looking Jasper directly in the eye. He lowered his head, and I knew that he mirrored my thoughts. Edward took a deep breath as he watched our exchange. I knew that he was reading Jasper's thoughts. I wanted so badly to ask him what Jasper was thinking, but I knew that the conversation was between the two of them alone.

"Okay, fair enough. Just know that if you two ever do act on your feelings again, that I reserve the right to tear you limb from limb and burn your remains," Alice said, no laughter in her voice.

"Duly noted," I said, chuckling, trying to bring a bit of levity back into the conversation.

I turned to Emmett and Rosalie. They looked at each other and then at me. "I don't know if we treated you very bad or not, Bella. I think that I, at least, tried to be supportive. I love you, Bella. You are the little sister that I never had, and while you screwed up, royally, I still love you and want the two of you to stay around. Life isn't the same around here without you," Emmett said.

"Oh, Emmett, you've been great! I love you, too. When the others turned their back on me, I always knew that you had my back. Thank you for your wonderful support," I told him jumping into his arms for an Emmett bear hug. It was worth it.

"I guess that I'm the one that didn't treat you the nicest then," Rosalie said. "Well, I guess that you disgusted me. You went to so many lengths to finally get your man, and then at the first chance that you get, you step out on him with your own brother! I'm disgusted by you and your lack of a sense of decency. I don't understand how the rest of the family is being so forgiving all of a sudden, just so the two of you will stay in the family. To be honest, it was a breath of fresh air without the two of you here during the past two weeks, no yelling, no shouting, no emoward, no tension in the room when the two of you walked into it, and to top it all off, no big worries at school about whether Bella would be able to control her blood lust or give us away accidentally."

"Rosalie, why would you say such a thing?" Esme asked, shock evident in her voice.

"Carlisle told us that we were to get our feelings in order so that we could get them out on the table, because what was said when they got home was important to the future of our family. Well, I have been thinking of little else since they've been gone, and these are my feelings. Don't get me wrong. I'm very happy that Edward has finally found someone who makes him happy, but I don't think that she fits in with our concept of what our family is and is supposed to be," Rosalie said, looking at me.

Edward growled and stood up pulling me up with him. "That's fine. Bella and I will be out of your family just as soon as I can make arrangements for us a place to go."

He was stopped immediately by Carlisle, Esme, Emmett, Jasper, and Alice who stepped between him and the stairs. "Wait, son," Carlisle said putting both hands on Edward's chest. "That definitely is not the family's consensus. We," he motioned to the ones blocking our advancement, "all want both you and Bella to stay. We all feel that our family isn't complete without the two of you in it. We have all felt as if two very big pieces of our family have been missing for the past two weeks, and it has been all that we could do to not pick up our phones and disturb your time together to speak with you daily. Please, please, go back to your seats. Don't leave us based on one person's view. Stop. Let's all talk this through. Please!" Carlisle begged.

I looked around at the faces that were stopping our progress. Esme's face was filled with the horror that she would be losing a son. She was gazing up at him with the look of a mother who was in deep despair, but then she met my eyes, and she had the same look on her face. I leaned down to hug her, and she pulled me into her arms and whispered, "Please, Bella. Don't go. I need more time to get to know you better. You have just come back into our lives, and I love you. Please don't go."

I looked at Alice's face, and she was looking at mine. She leaned over to me and hugged me. "Bella, I love you. You are my best friend, and it's time that we got that back. We haven't even been shopping for real since you've been turned. Besides, you don't want to leave Charlie now that you've got him back. Please don't go, please." Then she turned to Edward. "Edward, you can't take my shopping buddy away from me. You know that I'd go crazy. Please Edward, please. Go back and sit down. We want you to stay. I don't want you to leave. I might have had some doubts until just a moment ago, but I don't anymore. I need you, big brother. Please, stay."

I looked at Edward, and he looked at me. Then he turned, and we walked back to the love seat where we were sitting. He pulled me into his lap. "We are a matched set. We leave together, or we stay together. Those are the only two options. I personally think that Bella is doing a wonderful job of adjusting. Her blood lust is under amazing control for a newborn. She hasn't come close to slipping even once. She has been exposed to blood, and all she had to do was leave the room. She may have to be reminded from time to time to ease off of the physical activities, but she can turn pages of books already, which if I can remind you, Rosalie, took you almost a year to accomplish. Otherwise, I haven't seen any reason to question her adaptation to our lifestyle," Edward said.

"I agree. Bella is doing remarkably well for a newborn. In fact, I think that she is doing better than any newborn that I've ever seen," Carlisle said. "I don't think that she has added any burden to our family."

"What about going back for Billy's funeral? Then going back because Charlie was getting shot? Now we have another human who knows about us. What if the Volturi finds out about him? Then the debacle with DHS and foster care and Carlisle and Esme being arrested because she had to say that she and Edward were sleeping together in front of a teacher which ultimately led to us having to leave on the run. Now, she's seduced Jasper into having an affair right under Edward's and Alice's noses. No, I wouldn't say that she has added any burden to our family. I'd say that she's added a whole lot of burden to our family. That doesn't even go back to before she was changed. Let's not forget the whole chase with the tracker, and how she left Alice and Jasper and ran right into his hands. Then the infamous paper cut that made us run away on a moment's notice, yet again," Rosalie spat back.

The family was quiet. They seemed to be thinking about what Rosalie had just said. I got off of Edward's lap and went to the glass windows that looked out over the backyard. When Rosalie laid everything out on the table like that, she was right. I had caused the family a lot of grief in the short time that I'd been an official member. I loved them all, even Rosalie, maybe not as much as the others, but I did love her as well. She was Emmett's wife, and I love Emmett, so I would always try to love her, even if it was just a little bit.

I felt two hands on my shoulders and recognized them immediately. I looked up into Edward's eyes as he looked down into my own. I sighed as he leaned down and kissed me. The rest of the room continued to be quiet. No one was coming to my defense. I knew that her words had finally hit home with the rest of them. Edward took my hand and pulled me away from the window. He led me through the room to the stairs, then up the stairs to our bedroom. When we were behind our closed door, I fell into his arms.

"I don't want to leave them," I whispered so that only he could hear me.

"I don't either," he whispered back to me. "I've only lived away from Carlisle for ten years of my entire life since I've been changed. I really don't know what we'll do or where we'll go."

"What about Charlie?"

"I don't know, Bella. I guess that we need to take him with us. Rosalie is right. Him being here is putting them at risk with the Volturi. It was our choice to let him in on our secret. We should be the ones shouldering the risk. Besides, he is your father. You should be able to spend time with him for the rest of his life."

Edward went downstairs and got our suitcases and brought them upstairs to our room. Nobody said anything to him. He opened his and retrieved his laptop. We sat on the bed together and started researching towns to move to. We needed to stay somewhere cloudy, yet small, but not too small. We needed forest land nearby, preferably a national forest, but that was negotiable. We looked for several hours, and we were able to find the perfect place, finally. We would be going to Ithaca, New York. There were plenty of forests around with plenty of moose, caribou, and deer. Hopefully, we would find some kind of wildcat for Edward as well. This was also the home of Cornell University. We could go from high school to college to medical school in one place. Charlie could get a job with either the Ithaca police, the sheriff's department, or the University's police department.

As we were settling on our plans, someone knocked on our door. I looked at Edward, and he nodded. I went to the door and opened it. Alice and Jasper were standing there. I waved them inside.

"Are you really leaving us?" Alice asked quietly.

Edward looked at her and nodded. "It seemed pretty obvious that the consensus had been reached. We don't want to cause the family any more difficulties. It will be better for the family if we try living on our own for a few years."

"We want to come with you, then, if you'll have us. The past two weeks have honestly seemed like years with only Carlisle, Esme, Emmett, and Rose for company. We have missed the two of you beyond what words can adequately describe. To even imagine what life would be like in this family without you two in it breaks my heart, and I don't want that. I want my brother and my sister back with me. Please say that you'll think about it," Alice said.

I turned and looked at Edward, longing in my eyes. Then Alice jumped into the air and clapped her hands together. She looked at Jasper and said, "Yes, Jasper, we have to go pack. They said, 'Yes.'"

Edward laughed for the first time today, and I joined him. He put his laptop down and got up from the bed. He walked over to Alice and picked her up and swung her around in the air.

"How could we say no to such a hyper little pixie?" he grinned, giving her a peck on the cheek. Then he shook Jasper's hand and gave him a man hug. Alice ran and jumped into my arms. I hugged her back. This is what had been missing from my life for the past month. I put her down and ran into Jasper's outstretched arms. He swung me around the room just like Edward had done with Alice. I didn't get the peck on the cheek, however. He put me down, and we all made a circle, holding onto each other.

Then we heard someone clearing their throat at the door which was still open. We broke our circle between Edward and Jasper so that Alice and I still had a hold on each other and on our men. Carlisle and Esme were standing in the doorway looking beaten. He had his arm around her, pulling her close to him. "So, then, I'm to understand that all of you are leaving us?" he asked quietly.

"Carlisle, not by our choice. Bella and I would choose to stay and be a part of this family first and foremost, but we were all in the room. We all heard the accusations that Rosalie made, and nobody could deny anything that she said. Maybe she is right. Maybe we aren't meant to be a part of this family at this point in time. Maybe we need to be away from the family so that if we make more mistakes, they won't hurt the family. We will be the only ones affected by them."

"We don't want you to go either. Part of accepting new members into this family is accepting their mistakes. We have done that with every new member of this family. Edward, you know that better than anyone else in this family. You have been in this family the longest. The addition of you made us a family. Everyone else has come after you. If you wanted to, you could sit down and list everyone else's mistakes, just the way Rosalie listed Bella's. Not one of the members of this family has been embraced into the family without mistakes, and you know that. Rosalie knows that as well. Why did you let her sit there and call Bella out like that? Why didn't you come to her aid?" Carlisle asked.

"Carlisle, I warned you before we left on our two week get away that I expected for the rest of you to treat Bella and Jasper as members of the family when we got back. I also warned you of what the consequences of not doing so would be. If it had been Rosalie on a tirade against me, what would you have done, Carlisle? Would you have let her continue to berate me? Would you have let her continue to accuse me of making mistakes as a newborn when all of the new members of our family have done the same or worse? Or, would you have put her in her place? Would you have brought up her mistakes and told her that she, and Emmett, and Alice, and Jasper, and Esme had all made mistakes as new members of our family?" Carlisle hung his head. He knew that Edward had read the answer in his mind. He walked away, down the hall. Then we heard the door to his bedroom open and shut.

"I'm sorry, Esme. I truly am. But, when nobody came to my wife's defense, I realized that at this point in time, you still don't accept her as an equal part of this family. Until you do, we won't be back," Edward said, closing the door, shutting Esme out. He turned back to Alice and Jasper. "It looks like it is just the four of us for a little while, if the two of you are still in."

"We're still in," Alice said, jumping into my arms again. I hugged her again. I'd missed my friend.

"Well, then, we need to start planning. Alice, I suppose that you've seen where we are going. I'd rather the others not know where that is, if that is all the same with you guys." They nodded. "Okay. We'll need to find a house relatively quickly. I'd kind of like to find one with two wings and a central common area to cut down on noise traveling from one area to the other as much as possible." We looked on line for another couple of hours. We eventually found one that was perfect. It was on Cayuga Lake an had a Mother-in Law house that would be perfect for Charlie.

"I'll get in touch with Jenks and have him make a blind offer on the house. What are we going to do for money?"

"Well, the two of you have your personal account, and Bella and I have our personal account. Then we have the combined account. I figure that we can take fifty percent of the combined accounts with us. I'll set up the new accounts right now," Edward said. He took the laptop and opened up several banks at the same time. He took a notebook and wrote down several account numbers with dollar amounts next to them. He then put Carlisle and Esme on top of the page. He then turned to another page and wrote down several more account numbers and dollar amounts. He put Emmett and Rosalie on the top of that page. He then took several minutes of just typing as fast as his fingers would allow him to go on the laptop. He looked up and asked Jasper, "Do you want to keep our monies together or separate?"

"Together is fine with me as far as the combined accounts go. You and Ali have always managed them together anyway. They will grow faster that way. Keep the separate accounts separate. Pay for the house out of the combined account." Jasper said.

"Of course," Edward said. He continued to make arrangements for our monies to go to different accounts from the others. "Okay, that's done. Here is the account number for the house, Jasper," he said, handing Jasper an account number. "There is $750,000 in the account. If he needs more than that, he needs to contact us. Okay. As far as driver's licenses go. In order to qualify for a driver's license, we need to have a full Alaskan driver's license for 6 months. A permit won't cut it. That means that we have to be 16 and a half years old. So, Jasper, you will need to be 18 and the rest of us will need to be 17 or we will have to have permits, and we won't have parents to drive with us. I don't see why you don't just be 17 with us and let us all do the classes together. I'm sure that Alice would love to have you in her classes for a change."

"I would like that as well," Jasper said. "Are we going to be Hales and Cullens?"

"I think so, unless anyone is against that. I think that we go with what we are used to," Edward said.

"So, we will need birth certificates for twin births at 17 years old under Hales and Cullens. We will need Alaskan driver's licenses dated our 16th birthday. We will need Denali High School records for our Freshman, Sophomore, and first part of our Junior years. We will need marriage licenses dated on the youngest of the couple's 16th birthday, double ceremony. Why don't we just go in as married. I don't want to fool around with the mess of people flirting with our spouses. I would just rather claim that Ali and I are married from day one and put up with the speculation as to why we would be married rather than deal with the jealousies that come with every new school."

"I couldn't agree with Jasper more," I said, taking Edward's hand to my lips and kissing it. "I think that most of our problems have grown from jealousy, and I, for one, would rather deal with the speculation as to why we're married that have girls flirt with you."

"Agreed," Alice said.

"Agreed," Edward confirmed.

"Then we need our driver's licenses in our married names. We need social security cards in our married names. We need for our school records to reflect our name change during our sophomore year. For now, I will have Jenks Fed Ex everything to my private PO Box here. When do we want him to close on the house?" Jasper asked.

"Yesterday?" Edward said, a grin on his face. Then he turned to Alice and said, "Alice, do you see anything happening in the world of finance that we can take some short term advantage of?"

"Well, sell General Motors. They're going to go bust. Buy Disney Studios. Their next four movies are going to be whoppers. Other than that, nothing is going to look good for several years. I think that we need to play some lottery tickets, and maybe, we should take a side trip to Atlantic City," she said.

"Then we need driver's licenses that age us to 21 also," Jasper said, adding that to his list.

"Speaking of a side trip, we need to go tell Charlie," I said. "Who's with me?"

"I'll go. Let the boys finish all of their planning," Alice said, taking my hand and leading me out of the door.

As we went downstairs and towards the front door, we were stopped by a voice coming out of the dark room. "I'm sorry," Emmett said so softly that I almost missed it.

I stopped and turned towards him. He was sitting alone in the same chair that he was in earlier in the day. I don't think that he had moved a muscle. I walked over to him and kneeled down beside him. "Why are you sorry, Emmett?" I asked.

"I'm so sorry that Rosalie said those awful things. I've just been sitting here, trying to convince myself that my wife is the reason that you are leaving us. I am going to miss you so much, Bellaboo. I don't think that you realize how much I have grown to love you over these years. You've done wonderful things for our family, Bella, not bad things. You've brought Edward out of the shell that he was in for so long. You've made a new man out of him, a better man. You've brought laughter back into this family. We'd just been existing for several decades before you came into our lives, and now, because of Rosie, you and Edward are leaving us. I just feel like someone has kicked me in the balls," Emmett said.

"Oh, Emmett, I'm going to miss you, too. You are like my big brother, you know, the one that I never wanted. You mean the world to me, and I hope that one day, we can come back and rejoin the family. I don't hold anything that Rosalie said against you, and I never will. You can't control what comes out of her vile mouth. I wish you the best, Emmett, truly, I do," I said. He stood up and gave me a hug. Alice squeezed in and hugged him, too.

"I'm going to miss you, too, Emmett, but you know that we'll be back. We can't stay away forever," Alice said.

"What do you mean? You and Jasper are leaving, too?" Emmett asked.

"Yes, we are going with them. We need a little time away from Rosalie as well. I need time away from her incessant judging of Jasper, and her refusal to understand why I have forgiven him and Bella. It really is none of her business, and with her making it her business, I just don't feel like I want to be in that situation any more. Edward and I have forgiven Jasper and Bella. We're over it. Now it is time for the rest of you to do the same," Alice said.

We left him standing there, and we went to Alice's car. We drove to Charlie's house. When he answered the door, he was happy, though shocked, to see us. He invited us in. We sat down across from him. "Dad, I need to tell you something. This isn't easy, so I'll just tell you."

"Well, it looks like you and Alice are at least on speaking terms. That is an improvement since the last time that you were here, isn't it?" Charlie asked.

"Yes, Dad. That is an improvement, and Edward and I have worked out our problems as well. However, we are leaving the Cullens for a while."

"What do you mean, 'Leaving the Cullens?' Who is leaving the Cullens? Why?"

"Edward, me, Alice, and Jasper are leaving Carlisle, Esme, Emmett, and Rosalie. There were some things said about me this afternoon when Edward and I got back from our little get away that weren't so nice. Edward has decided that because they were said, it calls for a break from the rest of the family for a while. Alice and Jasper have decided to come with us for basically the same reason. Because you are my Dad, we'd like for you to come with us, too. We've found a house in Ithaca, NY, which has a mother-in-law house on the premises. We'd like for you to live there. There are ample choices for you to get a job. Please say that you'll come with us, Dad."

"Of course I'll come with you, Bells. The only reason that I'm here is because you are here. I don't care about the job. I can work anywhere. I can do anything. I just don't want to lose you again, ever. When will we be leaving?" Charlie asked.

"As soon as our attorney closes on the house. We'll be over to pack you up. Please don't tell anyone where we are re-locating to. We don't want word to get back to the Cullens. We need a clean break from them at this point," I asked Charlie.

"Of course, Bella. I'll do whatever you ask me to do. I'm going to miss Carlisle and Esme, though."

"I know, Dad. I will, too." We told him good-bye and came back to the house. We reminded Jasper that Charlie would need another Alaska driver's license as well as letters of recommendation. He could use his birth certificate and social security card that he already had.

We continued to plan throughout the night, and when morning arrived, Jasper and Edward left the house to go rent a U-Haul and call Jenks. We didn't want to risk anyone overhearing any of the details of our move. Alice and I started packing our rooms. We started in Edward's and my room. We had it packed in an hour and a half. Then we went into her and Jasper's room. It took a little bit more time to pack their room, but we had it packed before the boys made it back with the U-Haul. It didn't take us any time at all to move all of the boxes out of our rooms. We left the furniture in the rooms, hoping that one day, we may be coming back.

Then we went to Charlie's house. We took the hidden key from the place that he always hid it and opened the door. Then we went inside. We started with the upstairs spare bedroom. Alice and I packed while Jasper and Edward moved the furniture and the boxes. Then Alice and I packed all of the upstairs closets except for the master bedroom closet. We figured that Charlie would appreciate having something to change into after he showered. We then went into the dining room and packed all of the china and the silverware. We helped the boys move the dining room table and the hutch out of the small room.

We almost had the hutch out of the front door when we heard, "Hold it right there!"

"Um, can we get this through the door one way or the other so we can put it down?" Edward asked.

"Okay, just don't make any sudden moves," the voice said.

"As if we could," Jasper said.

"Don't be a smart ass," another voice said.

"Okay, gently, move your end just a little bit more to the right, Jazz. Okay, now forward," Edward said. We moved our end to the right, and then we moved forward.

"Wait, my end is going to hit the door knob," I said. "Alice, can you slide underneath and push the door back some more?" She let go of her end leaving, Edward alone on the front end, and crawled underneath the hutch. When she reached the door, she pushed it back, but it was stuck and wouldn't go back any further.

"It's stuck," she said.

"On what?" I asked.

"Hang on. Let me see. Spread your legs, Bella. I have to get out from under here to see what it is caught on." I spread my legs, and she scooted through. She stood up behind me and walked around to the other side of the door. "It's the t.v. It's right behind the door."

"Then move the t.v.," I said.

"Hang onto your horses," she said. "I'm trying to. The cable is too short. I'm going to have to disconnect the whole thing."

"Do you think that you could hurry up a little bit, darlin'? This thing is gettin' a little bit heavy," Jasper said for good measure.

"Don't rush me. I'm doing it as fast as I can, sweetheart," she said.

"Promises, promises," Jasper said with a twinkle in his eye.

"Come on you two. Please, Alice, can't you try to hurry just a little bit," Edward said.

"There, that got it," and she moved the t.v. to the side. The door swung open, moving the door knob from the way.

"Okay, I'm clear," I said.

"Okay, move forward," Edward said. We got the hutch outside of the house and sat it down on the front porch. Edward and Jasper made as if to wipe their foreheads.

When we looked up, we were staring into the aimed weapons of two Lebanon Police Officers. "Keep your hands where we can see them. Back away from the door." We put our hands in front of our bodies and moved further onto the porch. "What are you doing here? Is this your house?"

"No, this isn't our house, but we know the owner, and we're helping him pack up. He is moving and asked us to help," I said.

"Who is the owner?" the first officer asked.

"Charlie Swan. We're related. We're moving with him. He is a police officer with you," I said.

"He must be the new guy." He spoke into his radio microphone which was clipped to his shoulder. "Unit 21 to dispatch. Do we have an Officer Swan on duty today?"

After the usual squawking associated with mobile radio use, an unknown voice came back, "That's a 10 - 4. Officer Swan is on patrol today."

"Would you send him to his residence. There is a possible 10 – 70 in progress," he said.

"10 – 4," the unknown voice replied.

"We'll just wait for Officer Swan to arrive. Keep your hands where we can see them. Why aren't you in school?"

"We're getting ready to leave. We're just packing up, and as soon as we're done here and all loaded, we'll be leaving," Edward said.

It didn't take long before Charlie arrived at his home. He came down the street with his lights and sirens blaring. When he pulled into his driveway and saw the U-Haul and us on the porch, he cut off the lights and sirens. He got out of the car, and he and his partner walked up to the house.

"It's okay. I know these guys. This is Bella, Edward, Alice, and Jasper. They are helping me pack the house. I put in my letter of resignation this morning. Something has come up, and we're having to move a lot sooner than we thought that we would," Charlie said to the officers holding the guns on us and to his partner who was looking at the moving van with questions in his eyes.

"We got a call from one of your neighbors that someone was breaking into your house and taking all of your things. When we got here, they were moving that piece of furniture," the first officer said.

"Bella, I hope that you were being careful with that hutch. You know that it belonged to my grandmother, don't you?" Charlie said.

"Yes, sir. You told me that when I came over the last time, Uncle Charlie. I remembered," I said.

"She was making sure that they took very good care of it," the first officer said. "I'll vouch for her on that. It looks like quite the antique. I'll bet that it weighs a ton. I don't know how you four were lifting it. Do you need any help getting it into the truck while we are here?"

"No thank you. We've got it," Edward said. "We've got our second wind, now. Thank you for offering, but we wouldn't want to get your work clothes dirty. Charlie's grandmother may have kept it clean, but Charlie doesn't know the meaning of the word dusting." We all got a laugh out of that, and Charlie just blushed.

"Well, I used to have a daughter who dusted for me, but she had to go and get married," he said back to Edward.

"Yeah, he is one lucky guy," Edward said.

"Okay, then we'll be off. I'm sorry that we scared you. Keep up the good work," the second officer said. We waved to them. I hugged Charlie before he left.

When we were alone again, we picked up the hutch and carried it to the truck. Then we loaded the washing machine and the dryer. We packed them so that they wouldn't be damaged during the move. Alice and I packed the rest of the laundry room. Then we packed the pantry and the kitchen. We left the microwave and the refrigerator and one place setting so that he could eat. We packed and loaded everything else in the kitchen. Then we turned our attention to the living room. We hooked Charlie's t.v. back up so that he'd be able to watch his sports until we left, then we packed and loaded everything except his recliner. When Charlie arrived home after work that day, the only things left in his home were his recliner, his t.v., his refrigerator and a plate, fork, spoon, knife, glass, coffee cup, coffee maker, coffee, microwave, paper towels, dish washing liquid, a dish towel, and the things in his room and the master bath. Everything else had been packed and loaded in the U-Haul.

When we were finished there, we went back to the house for a final time. Alice and I packed her closet which was the only thing left to pack. We carried the boxes through the woods until we got to Charlie's house, then we put them into the U-Haul. We went back to the Cullen's house and joined up with our spouses. Edward had the sheets of paper with the bank account information on them. As we gathered by the door to say our final good-bye's, the rest of the family came downstairs.

Rosalie hung back from the rest of the family. She looked at Edward, then at Alice. She never even looked at Jasper or at me. She finally shook her head and said, "Edward, Alice, don't you think that this is taking things to the extreme just a little bit. I love you guys, and I have for over fifty years for you Alice, and almost a hundred years for you Edward. I know that things aren't perfect, but no family is perfect. Stay, and we'll work it out. We always do. Just stay."

Then the rest of the family pushed their way by Rosalie. Emmett gave each one of us a hug. "Edward, take care of my Bellaboo for me. Bella, you take care of Eddie, here. He's not used to being happy, and you're going to have to help him with that. Alice, you and Jazz take good care of each other. You've been through a lot, yet again, and it's time for you two to enjoy your lives together. Watch Eddie and Bellaboo if you get confused about what a happy couple looks like. I have a feeling that they will teach us all a thing or two about being happy together if we'll only watch and learn. Finally, Jasper, take care of Alice. She may be able to see the future, but try to be spontaneous and surprise her every once in a while. It will be worth it."

I reached up and hugged Emmett. Then Alice did the same. Jasper shook his hand and pulled him into a man hug. Then Edward reached into his pocket and pulled out the sheet of paper that had all of his financial information on it. "Emmett, these are your and Rosalie's personal bank accounts and the amount of money that is currently in each of them. All that you need to do to access them is go to any of the branches of that bank or call the bank directly and give them the account numbers. I have put the security questions and answers for each account." He turned the paper over. "These are the joint account numbers for the combined family accounts. Jasper and I have taken our family's share of the money out of the account already, so what is left belongs to your family and Carlisle's family. I have also put the security questions and answers associated with each account on the list."

As Edward was completing his discussion with Emmett, I made my way to Esme. I gave her a hug and a kiss on the cheek. Then Alice and Jasper did the same. She hugged us back, but she only had eyes for Edward. When he turned away from Emmett, she literally jumped into his arms. She placed kisses on both sides of his face. He pulled back from her and said, "Esme, I'm going to miss you most of all. You have a kind soul and a forgiving spirit. You have come the furthest in trying to make our family a part of the bigger picture. You have taken Bella under your wing and made her feel like you're the mom she never knew. I appreciate that. You don't know how much," Edward said.

Then, last, but certainly not least, we all turned to Carlisle. "Know this, all of you. I think of all of you as part of my family. I do not want any of you to leave this family. We are all very sad to see you go. This is probably the saddest day of my life, to see the four of you walking out of my front door, not knowing where you are going or when you will be back. I truly wish that you would reconsider."

"The time for talking and apologies is over, Carlisle. This is hurting me as much as it is hurting you. I don't want to leave the only family that I've known for the past one hundred years. However, my immediate family takes precedence over my extended family. Here is a list of your and Esme's personal accounts and the amounts in each. The security questions and the answers are also beside each account number. On the next page is the joint account information. Like I told Emmett, Jasper and I have withdrawn our shares. What is left is in these numbered accounts with these security questions and answers. I hope that we can come back one day, relatively soon."

Having said what he needed to say, Edward took my hand and led me out of the Cullen house for the last time in a while. I went to the Volvo, and he went to the Aston Martin. Alice drove her Porsche, and Jasper rode his Ducati. We all met at Charlie's house. Jasper called Jenks and asked for an update. He had obtained the property for $650,000, and the closing would be this morning at 10:00. The property would be vacated in two days for us to take possession. The deed would be held by a local attorney who would deliver it to us upon our arrival. It was in all four of our married names. Jenks had also over-nighted all of our paperwork to Jasper's PO Box. He should be able to pick them up this afternoon.

While waiting for the mail to run, we finished packing Charlie's house. We packed his bedroom and the living room, finishing in the kitchen. By the time that we were finished, Jasper went to get the mail. Sure enough, there was a large package from J. Jenks waiting for him. He opened it and inspected the contents. Everything was in order. He called Jenks and told him to cut himself $20,000 from the left over money for a job well done. Then he passed out the new driver's licenses. We memorized our new birthdays.

Edward loaded the Aston Martin on a car trailer attached to the U-Haul. When Charlie arrived home from work, we were ready to leave. He rode with me in the Volvo, and Edward drove the U-Haul. We stopped for the night to let Charlie get some much needed sleep. We stood guard over the vehicles during the night, catching up on stories of things that had happened while we were gone. Rosalie had been a bitch the whole time. She had done nothing but give Alice grief. She had told Alice numerous times that I couldn't be trusted, and that she should kick Jasper out for good. She had even followed Alice and Jasper into the woods when they'd gone off for a private talk to try to come to an understanding about our friendship and her placing limits on him. It had gotten so bad that Emmett had threatened to leave her if she didn't stop butting in.

We told them about the attempted robbery/rape/murder. They laughed when we told them about him putting a gun to my head. Jasper took up for Edward's snapping the guy's neck. He told me that he would have done the exact same thing. Nobody threatens one of his girls, even Rosalie. We all groaned at that, and he backpedaled. Okay, maybe Rosalie, for a little while. We all laughed again.

At somewhere just past 3:30 in the morning, when we were talking about starting school for the third time this year, we were hot lighted by a police car. Two officers got out of the car telling us to "step away from the vehicles." We stood up and walked away from the U-Haul and the cars into the open parking lot. We made sure that our hands were out in front of us. One of the officers had his weapon drawn and pointed at us.

"What are you kids doing out at this time of the morning?" the first officer, the thin one, asked.

"Talking," Edward said. "And looking out for our cars."

"Where are your parents?" the same officer asked.

"Back in Alaska," Edward said. "We're emancipated minors. We're on our way to Ithaca, NY for school."

"Do you have your driver's licenses?"

"Yes, mine is in my wallet, in my back pocket. May I get it?" Edward asked.

"Yes, move slowly," Edward reached around to his back pocket and retrieved his wallet. He opened it and pulled out his driver's license. He held it out to the officer who reached out and took it. "Edward Cullen. You," he pointed to Jasper, "do you have a driver's license on you?"

"Yes, sir. It is in my back pocket as well," Jasper answered.

"You may get it," the first police officer said. Jasper reached into his back pocket and pulled out his wallet. He opened it and got out his driver's license and handed it to the officer.

"Jasper Hale. How about you, little lady," he pointed to Alice.

"Mine is in my purse. Do you want me to get it?" Alice asked.

"No, I'd rather you give me your purse and allow me to get it. Is that okay with you?" the first police officer asked.

"Sure, it's fine with me," Alice said, handing him her purse. "Just be careful with it. It's real Gucci." He took her purse like it was an alligator that was about to bite him. He opened it and using a flashlight, he moved things around with his pen. He finally found her wallet and picked it up. He opened it and asked her to come and take her driver's license out of it. Alice walked up to him and took it out of her wallet and handed it to him. "Alice Hale. Are you Jasper's sister?"

"No, I'm his wife. She's his sister," Alice said.

"His wife. Aren't you too young to be married?" the officer asked.

"No sir. In Alaska you can get married with your parent's approval at 16. We're both over 16," Alice said, moving closer to Jasper.

"Okay, now you, young lady. Do you have your driver's license with you?" he asked me.

"Well, yes and no. Yes, I have it, but no, it's not with me. It is in the car," I said.

"Okay, will you get it for me?" he asked.

"Sure. Edward, will you unlock the Volvo for me?" I asked. He did, and I went over to the car and pulled out my purse which I took over to the police officer. He took it and rifled through it with his pen until he came to my wallet. He pulled out my wallet and handed it to me. I took out my driver's license and handed it to him.

"Bella Cullen. Are you Edward's sister?" he asked.

"No, I'm his wife. Alice already told you that I'm Jasper's sister. Alice is Edward's sister," I said.

"I think that you kids are just trying to confuse me. I'll be right back. I'm going to run these licenses. Don't think about running off." We waited, just standing there. It took him several minutes to run all of our licenses. When he came back, he seemed disappointed that everything checked out all right. He handed them back to us, and we put them back where they belonged. He gave Alice and me our purses back. "Do you have any proof that these are your cars?"

Edward walked over to the Volvo and went to the glove compartment. He got out the registration and brought it back to the officer, showing it to him. It was registered to him. Luckily, we hadn't changed it from Alaska to New Hampshire yet. The officer was satisfied. He motioned to his partner that all was well, and they got into their cruiser and left. Edward put the registration back up, and I threw my purse back into the car before he locked it up once again. The rest of the night was quiet.

We left the next morning after Charlie had the continental breakfast. We stopped once for a "Charlie break," he'd had too much coffee with breakfast, but we were pulling into Ithaca before noon. We had arrived. We were in the town where the five of us would start our new lives together, still a family, albeit a smaller family than the one we were used to.


	29. Chapter 29

**Disclaimer – Stephenie Meyers owns it all.**

**Chapter 29 - Emancipation**

We found a hotel to put Charlie in while the rest of us made arrangements to move into our new home. He watched out for the cars and the U-Haul while we went to the attorney's office. The streets were somewhat narrow, and I for one was glad that we didn't have to maneuver Emmett's Jeep through them. Edward was having enough trouble with his Volvo as it was. Even though we didn't have an appointment, the attorney who worked on our home closing, Rich Samuels, Esq., insisted on meeting us. The receptionist led the four of us into a conference room where he joined us after several minutes.

He was an older gentleman, appearing to be in his early 60's or late 50's. He was graying around the temples and was clean shaved. He appeared to be about 5 feet 7 inches tall and weighed about 180 pounds. He was wearing a light gray suit with a red tie. I could hear Alice suck in her breath as she took notice of that combination. He walked with a slight limp on the left hand side, but didn't use a cane. He had an air of authority about him when he entered the room. He walked up to Edward with his right hand extended. Edward met his hand and shook it. "Rich Samuels, and you are?"

"Edward Cullen, and this is my wife, Bella."

"Good to meet you, Bella. And, you must be Jasper Hale, and you must be Alice Hale," he said shaking hands with each of us in turn. "I must say, I was certainly shocked when I heard from your attorney, Mr. Jenks, that you were interested in the old Hawthorn place. That place has been on the market for several months. It is so isolated that most people don't even look at it, and you want it sight unseen. I certainly advised the Realtor for the Hawthorn estate to accept your offer for the place even though it was considerably less than the asking price. And in cash. My word, when Mr. Jenks advised me that he would be sending me a wire for the money, my heart almost stopped right there. Where, may I ask, did you four, young adults, for lack of a better phrase, ever get your hands on such a large sum of money. You understand, I must be satisfied that the money was not illegally obtained."

Edward laughed. "No offense, Mr. Samuels, but that is the furthest thing from the truth. Our families are from Alaska. We came by our money the old fashioned way. We inherited it. Our forefathers managed to stumble across one of those gold mines in the wilderness up around Denali where our extended families still live today. The mines set us up pretty well before they played out, Mr. Samuels. You haven't seen a fraction of the money that we have at our disposal. Some of it is here in the U.S. Banking system; some of it is here in the U.S. Trading system, but most of it is in international accounts, not touchable by anyone but us."

"Wonderful. If you ever have need of a financial planner, please, you know where to find me," he said.

"Thank you. I will keep that in mind. I do have a legal question, however. You may be able to help me."

"Certainly. If I don't know the answer, I can find it out for you."

"Well, in Alaska, we were considered emancipated just because we were married. I tried to look it up on the internet, but was unable to find applicable state law in New York. We are going to need to enroll in High School as soon as we get settled in the house, and unfortunately, our parents are no longer with us. That's part of the reason that we married so young. Our parents were killed in an automobile accident. Instead of becoming wards of the state, we convinced the judge to allow us to marry instead, thus emancipating us. What is our status here in New York?"

"I don't believe that New York has a specific law concerning emancipation of minors. Hold on, and let me get my partner in on this conversation. She deals exclusively with Family Law." He reached over and punched a button on his intercom. "Ramona, could you see if Zoe is available to come in here right away. It is important. Thank you."

Less than two minutes later, there was a knock on the door. Upon being told to enter, a tall, thin, red headed woman who stood approximately 5 feet 10 inches tall and weighing 120 pounds entered the room. She looked to be about 33 years old and was in great shape. She had curves within her curves. "You needed me, Rich?"

"Yes, Zoe, let me introduce you to our newest clients. This is Edward Cullen and his wife, Bella. And this is Jasper Hale and his wife, Alice. They just bought the old Hawthorne house. They have a question that I believe is right up your alley. They have just moved here from Alaska. Their parents were all killed in a car accident, and instead of becoming wards of the state, they convinced the judge to allow them to marry, thus emancipating them according to the laws of Alaska. They are moving here, alone, and need to do the usual things to establish residency, including registering for school, but obviously, they don't have parents or a legal guardian. I didn't remember any emancipation laws for New York. What do they need to do?"

"Well, there is no emancipation law for the state of New York. Marriage automatically emancipates a minor child. The problem is that most adults don't know that. They are going to have problems getting the power turned on, and the cable hooked up, and so on because you have to be over 18 to do those things, and I'm guessing that none of you are 18 yet." We shook our heads, no. "The easiest thing to do would be to write a Motion for each of you recognizing that you are emancipated based on your married status and have it signed by the Youth Court Judge. Do you happen to have your marriage licenses with you, by chance?"

"Yes ma'am, we do. Would you like them now?" Jasper asked.

"Now would be great," Zoe said.

"Keys," Jasper said, and he reached up and caught them as Edward tossed them to him. He walked out of the building and returned a few moments later with both of our marriage licenses. He tossed the keys back to Edward. "Here you go, ma'am." He handed the marriage licenses to her. She inspected them, confirming the names and the dates.

"Oh, you had a double ceremony! How sweet!" she exclaimed. "I always wanted that with my sister." She went over to a copy machine and made several copies of each of the licenses. Then she pressed a button on the intercom. "Ramona, could you please come in here and bring your notary." We waited for several minutes, and then a small, plump woman knocked and entered the room. She had a notary stamp and a book. Zoe asked for her to certify each of the copies that she had made as true copies. Ramona wrote something on each of the copies of our marriage licenses and then she did her notary thing to each one of them. Zoe handed Jasper the original copies back. She then took one copy of each of the licenses and gave the others to Jasper. "Keep these. You may need true copies in the near future. This will save you some time."

"Thank you," Jasper said as he put them into the folder with the originals.

"Now, if you will all just take a seat, I'll be right back." She left us in the conference room with Rich.

"Rich, you said that we were buying the old Hawthorn place. Is it already vacated?" I asked.

"Yes, it is. Would you like the keys? There is no reason that you couldn't take possession of it right away. It isn't as if we were waiting for a loan to go through or anything like that."

"Yes, we would. We are sitting on a U-Haul full of furniture at the moment, and we would love to go ahead and get it unloaded," I said.

"I'll be right back." He left the room and returned thirty seconds later with two keyrings. "This is the key to the front door, and this one is to the garage door. Here are two garage door openers. Here is a key to the garage that is away from the house. And this keyring has the keys to the mother-in-law house. I believe that it also has a key to the boat house on it as well."

"Thanks," Edward said, taking one set of keys and tossing the other one to Jasper. He took the set of mother-in-law keys and tossed them to me. I wasn't expecting them, and I almost dropped them. The others laughed at me when I fumbled them, but I managed to get a hold on them finally, and I put them in my purse for Charlie.

After about thirty minutes, Zoe came back into the room holding 4 sheets of paper. She said, "Follow me. You don't mind a little walk do you?" None of us did. We followed her out of the building and around the corner to the Tompkins County Courthouse. We entered the building and followed her up the stairs to the Family Courtroom. She told us to wait outside, so we leaned against the wall while she entered the courtroom.

After ten minutes or so, she opened the door and motioned for us to come with her. We walked into the courtroom and saw several people sitting down looking somewhat annoyed. She motioned us to follow her into what appeared to be the judge's chambers. We followed her inside the room and stood in front of the desk waiting for further instructions.

"Hi, I'm Judge Little, have a seat, please." There were only two seats besides the one that Zoe was sitting in, so Edward motioned for Alice and me to sit. We did and thanked them. "Zoe, here, has brought these motions before me to declare the four of you emancipated minors. Do you understand what that means?"

"Yes, sir," we all said, basically together.

"One of you explain it to me, please."

"It means that we are considered adults in all respects. We are responsible for ourselves, for our own support and upkeep, so to speak. We are responsible for a roof over our heads, food, clothing, school, insurance, transportation, medical and dental care, utilities, maintenance and upkeep of our home, and any and all unforeseen eventualities that may arise," Edward said.

"And you believe that you qualify for emancipation because, why?"

"Because we are married," Edward said. "In Alaska, that was enough of a reason. We qualified based solely on the fact that we were married."

"And what do your parents think of that?"

"Our parents are dead. They were killed by a drunk driver in a car accident a month before we were married. The youth court judge in Denali knew our families. He knew our parents and us. He knew that they would rather us go ahead and get married which was already in the plans anyway. We were just going to wait until we finished high school to do it. He knew that our parents wouldn't want us in some foster home. We had the means to survive. We come from some old money. Between that and the life insurance money and the settlement from the drunk's insurance, we're set for life, so, he married us when Alice and I turned 16."

"I'm sorry for your loss. Do you have a bank statement or something that shows your bank balance so that I can establish your ability to financially care for yourselves?"

"No sir, but if you will allow me to use your computer for a couple of seconds, I can show you our savings account balance. Will that be satisfactory?"

"Yes, that would be sufficient."

Judge Little scooted his chair away from the computer and allowed Edward to move in front of the keyboard. He brought up one of the international banks and pulled up one of our bank accounts. "This is one of Bella and my accounts," he said, indicating the screen.

Judge Little looked at the screen. "That is definitely sufficient. Did you say that is _one_ of your accounts?"

"Yes sir. We have several others. That is actually one of the lower amounts." Then he started making some other keystrokes. "This is one of Jasper's and Alice's accounts."

Judge Little leaned over and again looked at the screen. "Again, this is absolutely sufficient. You, too, have other accounts?"

"Yes, they do. I generally handle all of the finances for the four of us. We also have a good bit invested in the stock market, and we have several more local accounts as well."

"Well, it seems that you have more of a handle on what it means to be an adult than most adults do. I'm going to sign these motions. Consider yourselves adults in the state of New York."

"Thank you, sir," Edward said for all of us.

"Zoe, can you get these posted so that they can take a copy today. I have a feeling that they need to get some issues taken care of so that they can move into their new home. Where are you moving to, if I may ask?"

"Um, the old Hawthorn place," Edward said.

"Oh, wow, that place. Don't get me wrong, but why would you want to live out there? It is so isolated, out there in the woods and on the lake and all."

"That is exactly what spoke to us. We did a lot of camping with our Dad's. We loved the wilderness in Alaska, and we were hoping to find something to approximate it here. That is as close as we could find. We love to hike and camp. Most weekends we won't even be in the house," Jasper said.

"You have to be careful. Snow storms blow up mighty suddenly here. We might get a couple of feet of snow overnight on occasion. Camping out isn't always safe."

"Um, not to sound like a know-it-all, but we were raised in Alaska. We camped out in subzero weather in twenty feet of snow," Edward said.

"Oh, yeah. I guess a couple of feet of snow won't bother you guys that much, will it?"

"No, not that much," I said, giggling.

"Well, it has been a great pleasure meeting all of you. I'm glad that you picked our town to move to, and I hope to see you around again, though not in this office."

"Our sentiments, exactly," Edward said. We turned, after shaking his hand, and followed Zoe out of the room. We left the courtroom and went to the office in the hallway.

"Can you get these filed expeditiously? Judge Little wants copies to go with these guys like now." The clerk looked up from what she was doing. She looked at us with a grimace on her face, then seeing Edward and Jasper, she smiled.

"Sure thing, Zoe. What Judge Little wants, Judge Little gets." She took the papers from Zoe and looked at them. She took them to a book and stamped them. Then she took them to a copier and made copies of each one. Then she brought it back to where she started and marked the copies with something that looked like a notary stamp, but I had a suspicion that it wasn't. She handed the copies to Zoe who thanked her. Zoe turned and walked out of the hallway, and we followed her again. We walked back to her office.

When we entered the door, the receptionist paged Rich who came up front immediately. "Did you get it taken care of?" Zoe shook the papers in her hand. "Great job, Zoe. Great job. I knew that you could do it!" She handed him the papers and left us alone with him. He looked over them and ushered us back into the conference room. He motioned for us to sit down. After we sat, he said, "I hope that you don't mind, but I took the liberty of calling in a few favors while you were gone. I spoke with the power company, the utility company which includes water and sewage, and the gas company. All of them have changed the accounts over into your name, Edward. They will just add all of the initial fees to the initial bill."

"Thank you, but we will still have to go by those companies because we have to have the receipts in order to change our driver's licenses and to establish residency for school admission," Edward said. "How much do we owe you for the work that you've done for us today for the emancipation declarations?"

"Consider it a gift from us to you," Rich said.

"No, we will pay our way. We don't want to be beholden to anyone," Jasper said. "Tell us what you charge per hour."

"Zoe bills out at $250 per hour," Rich said.

"Then we owe you $500," Edward said, pulling out his wallet and counting out five, one hundred dollar bills. He handed them to Rich and asked for a receipt. He gave us one, and we took all of the paperwork and left the office.

We drove to the nearest service station, and I got out and asked for directions to the power company. Neither Edward or Jasper would admit that they didn't know where they were going. Edward followed my directions, and soon we were pulling into the power company. Jasper and Alice were more interested in each other than in coming inside, so Edward and I went in to get the power hooked up. We were directed to an office and once there, we were motioned to take a seat, as the employee was on the phone. As soon as she got off of the phone, she asked us how she could help us.

"My name is Edward Cullen, and we've just purchased the Old Hawthorn House. We need to get the power for it and for the mother-in-law house turned on in our names. Mr. Samuels called ahead."

"Oh, yes, Edward Cullen. My name is Stephanie." She held out her hand, and Edward shook it. She took out some papers from a folder. "He said for me to just bill the change over fees on your first statement. You didn't need to drive all of the way out here."

"We need the receipt for establishing residency for driver's license and for school. I want to not only pay the deposit, but to put some money on the account. I like to pay the account ahead of time so we don't have to worry about having to make it in every month to pay on it. We tend to function on a cash only basis when possible."

"That is unusual. May I ask why?" Stephanie asked.

"Well, we find it hard to over spend that way. If we don't use credit cards, then we don't over spend, and I've never been a fan of checking accounts. No offense to the local banks, but a one decimal point error can ruin your credit. So, we just stick to cash transactions." He took out his wallet and started counting out some money. He gave her $4,500. "At $450 per month, and I'm assuming that the power bill shouldn't be that every month, this is ten month's worth. That should get us pretty well into next year. May I have a receipt?"

Stephanie looked flabbergasted. She took the money and recounted it. Then she took her receipt book and wrote out the receipt. She handed it to Edward. Then she had him sign the contract for power at our new home. She handed him a copy of the contract. "Thank you, Mr. Cullen for your business. Don't hesitate to let us know if we can help you in any way."

"Thank you, Stephanie." He took my hand, and we walked out to the car. Alice and Jasper were still engrossed with each other. "Would you like for us to take you back to the hotel so that you can pick up Charlie and start unloading the U-Haul and get him set up?"

"Sure. We can do that. No problem," Alice said. Edward turned the car around and took them back to the hotel where Charlie was ever protecting the U-Haul.

"Great news, Dad. The house is already vacant, and we can go ahead and move in. Alice and Jasper are going to take you out there while Edward and I finish hooking up all of the utilities. They are going to unload the U-Haul and start getting you settled in," I said going up to him and giving him a hug.

"That's great, honey! I can't wait to get settled in. I hate hotels!" Charlie said. He climbed into the cab of the U-Haul and cranked it up, waiting to follow Jasper and Alice to our new homestead. I stayed with him while Edward went inside to pay the bill.

When he came back outside, he gathered with Jasper and Alice and me. "How much money do you still have on you?"

Jasper took out his wallet and counted his money. "I have just over $1000."

"Is that enough, or do you want me to get you some more?"

"I think that it is plenty. After all, you are the one that is taking care of setting up the accounts. They are all going to be in your name, right?"

"If that is okay with all of you. It just makes sense to keep it all under one name. That way, it makes less of a target for them to find us."

"Yes, it is fine for me. I kind of figured you would do that since you are the one that deals with our finances anyway."

Alice broke in. "That's fine with me, too. I figured the same thing, and I have about $800. I'm good."

I looked at him and couldn't help but give him a kiss. "I have $1000 in my wallet. That's plenty. Besides, I'm always with you."

"Okay, I'm going by the bank. I need to get some more. I plan on paying everything in cash here. No credit cards for anything. Please destroy any that you are still carrying. If you need anything that you would normally pay for with a check or a credit card, please get a bank note for it."

"No problem. I don't want to be found by anyone either," Jasper said. "I do want to get a PO Box though, for my journals."

"Yeah, no problem. If they try to contact the journal to get your forwarding address, we are screwed anyway," Edward said.

We gave hugs all around, me ending with Charlie. Then we split to do our own things. Edward and I went to the bank nearest our home. We walked in together, hand in hand. We asked the teller for the accounts manager, and we were directed to a young man in an office off to the side. His door was open, so we walked to his office and knocked on the door. He stood and motioned us inside. He introduced himself as Greg Anderson, and Edward introduced us as Edward and Bella Cullen. He motioned for us to take a seat, and we did.

"Mr. and Mrs. Cullen?" Mr. Anderson asked. Edward nodded. "You just look so young to be married. Well, Mr. Cullen, what may I do for you today?"

"Mr. Anderson, my wife and I, and our siblings have just bought the old Hawthorn place. We're new to town, and I believe that this bank is the closest one to our new home. We need to establish a relationship with a financial institution, and not knowing the reputations of any of any of the banks in this town, this seemed a good place to start," Edward said.

"Well, we are glad that you chose us to do business with, Mr. Cullen, and I can assure you that we do have a well deserved fine reputation. What exactly can I assist you with?"

"Well, most of our banking needs will be withdrawal of money from our existing accounts. We exist on a cash only basis, foregoing credit cards and checks. In exchange for allowing us access to our accounts on an unlimited basis, I am willing to transfer three sizable accounts to your bank," Edward said.

"That is a very unusual request, I must say. Usually, our savings accounts carry a limit of four withdrawals per quarter before a penalty is assessed. You may want to consider establishing a checking account and just not order checks. Withdrawals from those accounts are not penalized," Mr. Anderson said.

"Checking accounts do not carry the interest income associated with savings accounts, though. I will be taking a penalty already by moving these accounts into your financial institution. I think that once you see the size of the accounts, you will be willing to work with me. If you aren't, then we will try the next bank," Edward said.

"May I look at the accounts before I make my decision?" Mr. Anderson asked.

"Of course," Edward said. "May I have a piece of paper?" Mr. Anderson handed him a piece of paper, and he wrote down three account numbers. In vampire volume I asked him which three accounts he gave him. He answered me that he gave him one of ours, one of Jasper's and Alice's and one of our combined accounts. Mr. Anderson took the three accounts and pulled them up one by one. He wrote the figures on the piece of paper. The first account had $20 million dollars in it. The second one had $18 million dollars in it. And the third one had $73 million dollars in it.

"We will have no problems accommodating your needs, Mr. Cullen. How soon will you authorize the transfer of these accounts?"

"Immediately. If you can draw up the necessary paperwork, then I will sign for the transfer of all three accounts. In addition, I need to withdraw some money from three other accounts today. We have utilities to take care of for the new house."

"Certainly." Mr. Anderson began typing something that looked complicated at the computer. Edward just sat there watching everything that he did. After thirty more minutes, he printed several papers and handed them along with a pen across the desk to Edward to sign. Edward picked up the papers and read them. Then he signed them in the appropriate blanks. He handed them back to Mr. Anderson who then stood up and shook Edward's hand. "Welcome to our family, Mr. Cullen, Mrs. Cullen. If you would follow me, we will arrange for that withdrawal now." We followed him into the lobby of the bank and past the line that was waiting for the next available teller. He motioned to the teller who was working the window to come to the next window which had a closed sign on it. She apologized to the woman whom she was serving. Then she walked over to the closed window.

"Yes sir, Mr. Anderson. How may I help you?" she asked. We could hear the grumbles of the people who had waited patiently in line for their turns. Some were asking who we were. Others were complaining that we should have to wait in line like everyone else.

"Peggy, this is Mr. Edward Cullen, and his wife, Bella. They have just opened three accounts with us, and they would like to make a withdrawal. Flag their account that there will be no penalty for any number of withdrawals." Turning to Edward, he asked, "Do you need those new account numbers, Mr. Cullen?"

"No, Mr. Anderson, I memorized them from the account sheets that you had me sign to transfer the accounts. I don't think though that the accounts have had time to transfer funds. I will withdraw the funds from other accounts. I assume that there will not be a problem with that transaction?" Edward asked.

"Of course not, Mr. Cullen. Peggy, withdraw the money from whatever account numbers that Mr. Cullen gives you. There will not be a transaction fee today or any day that he or his family comes in to access any of their accounts," Mr. Anderson said.

"I understand, Mr. Anderson. It is nice to meet you, Mr. Cullen. May I have the account numbers, please."

"May I have a piece of paper?" She handed him some withdrawal slips and a pen. He wrote the account numbers and the amounts to be withdrawn on the slip of paper and handed it back to her.

"Are you serious?" she asked. Edward just looked at her. She typed the first account number into the computer. Her gasp was heard throughout the bank. Then she typed in the second and the third account numbers as well. She turned back to Edward and stared at him. "You're serious. You want to withdraw this much money in cash?"

"Do you have a problem with the withdrawals?" Edward asked in a low voice.

"I don't have that much in my drawer. I'll have to go into the vault," she said.

"Are you not trained in that procedure? Should you request the assistance of another, more senior teller?" Edward asked.

"No, yes, I mean, yes, I'm trained to carry out the withdrawal."

"Then is there a problem with the accounts? I do believe that the account numbers that I gave you have adequate sums in them to cover the withdrawals."

"Yes, more than adequate."

"Then would you please complete the withdrawals. My wife and I have several more stops today before the close of business."

She shook her head and looked at the screen again. Then she looked behind her to the teller who was working the drive through window. "Becky, I have to go into the vault for a moment. Would you come out here and watch the front?" A young woman, who I presumed to be Becky, came out of the enclave where she had been holed up and stood by the front desk. Peggy got some keys from behind the desk and signaling the security guard, walked up to the vault. She opened the door, and they both stepped inside. Several minutes later, she and the guard stepped back outside of the vault. She came back to the window that Edward and I were standing at. She had a stack of wrapped bills. They were made up of $100 bills, and each wrapping was $1000. She counted out twenty of them, and double checked the count, and then she handed them to Edward. Then she counted out seventy more of them, double checked her count, and handed them to Edward. Finally, she counted out another one hundred of them and double checked her count. She handed them to Edward who thanked her. He put the money into the packet that he had brought into the bank with him. Then we walked out of the bank and got into the car.

"Edward, did you just withdraw $190,000 dollars?" I asked him once the doors were closed.

"Yes, twenty thousand from Jasper and Alice's account, seventy from our account, and one hundred from our joint account."

"Why so much?"

"We have to buy furniture, everything from our bedroom set to a refrigerator. We need linens, shower curtains, everything to set up a fake household. I also want to buy Charlie a vehicle of his own. He needs to be able to get around without having to ask us for transportation."

"Oh, I guess so."

We made a trip to the gas company and to the water company. Then we went to the cable company. It seemed that we lived too far out of town to get cable, so we went to the Direct TV company and ordered satellite tv for both the main house and Charlie's house. We scheduled installation for the next day. Then we went to the phone company. We didn't get a phone, but we did set up a DSL line for our computers. We also set up a DSL line for Charlie's house, though we didn't think that he would ever use it.

That done, we went back to the house. Alice and Jasper had everything unloaded and placed into the correct room. They had started in Charlie's bedroom and were assembling his bed when we arrived. "Why don't you guys take the U-Haul to some distant town and trade it back in. We'll finish setting up in here. Take a little time to be together. Remember, though, that we don't have any furniture for our house. We need to go shopping soon, hopefully today," Edward said to Alice and Jasper when we joined them in Charlie's room. They agreed, and soon they were off.

"Dad, will you come up here, please?" I called out. He grumbled, but he came to his room. "Exactly where do you want the bed to go?"

"Where ever you think that it will look the best, Bella. I trust you to make the room look good." He turned around to walk out, and I grabbed his hand and pulled him back into the room.

"Where do you think you are going? This is your house. You should at least help a little."

"Well, you guys seem to have everything under control. I didn't want to seem to get in the way," Charlie said.

"Well, you're not in the way. Which wall do you want the bed on?" I repeated. He pointed to the wall on the left side of the window. Edward and I moved the bed against that wall. I pulled out a clean sheet set. "Here, Dad. Make yourself useful and make your bed." Then I unpacked his hanging clothes. I unpacked his hall closet, and Edward and I started setting up his guest room. By the time that Alice and Jasper got back, I was putting the finishing touches on his kitchen. Edward had set up his den the way that he liked it. Alice and I made quick work of the dining room. We had Charlie unpacked and ready to function in less than half a day. He would have to go to the grocery store to stock his kitchen, but he could do that on his own.

There were still a couple of hours before the end of the business day, so we all loaded into the Volvo and headed out again. We drove to the nearest car lot. Charlie looked around us in wonderment when we all got out of the car. "Don't you have enough cars?" he asked.

"Yeah, Charlie," I said, "but you don't. Let's look around for something that you can drive. I know that you are partial to trucks."

"I don't need a truck, Bells. I get around pretty well on my own."

"We are living out pretty far from town, this time, Charlie. You won't be able to just run here and there the way that you've always been able to. You need something to get around in. Let's just look, okay. Let's see if something catches your eye."

Edward and I walked over to the truck section of the car lot. Edward stopped in front of a Chevy Silverado. Charlie walked up to it. He looked inside of it. At that point, a salesman walked up to us. He started talking to Charlie about the truck. I could tell that Charlie liked the truck. He asked some questions about it. Then Edward asked some questions about it. The salesman looked back and forth between the two trying to determine who the truck would be for. Charlie finally asked the most important question in his mind, how much was it. The salesman quoted him a price of $43,000. Charlie shook his head and started to walk away.

"We'll take it," Edward said. "How quickly can you have the paperwork drawn up?"

"Well, you'll have to complete a credit application, and then we'll have to get the application approved by one of the finance companies," the salesman began.

"Is your manager available?" Edward asked.

"Yes, but I can handle all of the paperwork," the salesman assured Edward. Edward walked to the Volvo, and opening the trunk, he counted out $46,000 and put the rest back into the trunk.

"I need to see the manager. I'm ready to purchase the Silverado."

"Yes, sir," the salesman said, leading the way inside. We followed him inside. We stood by the financial office while he went and got the manager.

"Hi, my name is Sam Tucker. How may I help you, sir?"

"I'm Edward Cullen, and this is my wife, Bella. This is my father-in-law, Charlie Swan. We would like to purchase the silver Silverado that you have on the lot. I'll be paying cash. We are in a hurry and would like to expedite the transaction."

"Cash? Oh, okay. We've never handled this large of a transaction in cash. Come into our financial office here, and let's see how we can help you." We followed him into the financial officer's office, and he told us to have a seat. "Bob, this is Edward Cullen. He would like to purchase the silver Silverado that is on the lot. He would like to pay cash."

"Welcome, Mr. Cullen. Let me pull up that vehicle. Okay, the sticker price is $43,000. Tax is 2,350. We'll throw in everything else, like the undercoating and such, for a total price of $45,350."

Edward counted out the money and gave him $45,400. Bob gave him $50 change. By the time that we were finished conducting business, the salesman had taken the Silverado to the back of the lot and had it cleaned up and filled up with gas. He was driving it to the front as we walked out of the building. He tried to hand the keys to Edward, but Edward motioned them towards Charlie who took them with a look of appreciation on his face.

"Don't worry about registering it, Charlie. I'm going to take all of them tomorrow to have them registered," Edward said. Then he gave Charlie $350 and told him to go grocery shopping while we went to look at some furniture. Charlie nodded and gave me a hug. He got into his new truck and left us alone.

"That was a nice thing that you did, Edward," Alice said.

"Well, it's our responsibility to take care of him, now," Edward said. "Okay, let's get some furniture."

We went to the nearest furniture store. We lucked out. Alice and Jasper were able to find a bedroom suit that they liked. They were also able to keep it below the $20,000 that Eward had taken out of their account. We found a bedroom suit that we also liked, and we were also able to stay within our budget. Between Alice and me, we were also able to fully furnish the rest of the house. By the time that we were finished shopping the store was closing. We didn't think that they would be able to deliver anything that we'd purchased, but with a small bribe, Edward ensured that our furniture would be delivered that evening.

While the guys went home to wait on the furniture, Alice and I went to the local mall. There was a Sears as one of the anchors of the mall, so we hit there first. We were able to buy our washer and dryer and a refrigerator. Edward had given me $15,000 to spend on the other things that we needed. We also went to Dillards and bought bedding sets, towels, washcloths, hand towels, kitchen utensils, small appliances, sheets, shower curtains, and anything else that we thought that we'd need for the house. We filled the car to the brim. When we got home, the guys were still unloading the furniture. Unfortunately, the employees of the furniture store were doing the unloading. There were still two trucks to unload after the one that they were working on.

We told them that we knew that they'd worked all day, and we thought that they needed a break. They were agreeable to the break, and we told them to go down to Charlie's house for a little while. I walked them down and asked Charlie if he would get them something to drink and let them hang out for a little while. He agreed to keep them entertained, and with a wink at me, he showed them into the kitchen. I ran back up to the house, and between the four of us, we unloaded the truck that they were working on, the second truck, and half of the third truck before they came back.

Needless to say, they were astonished. Edward just told them that they were extra tired after working for so long today. He offered to let us unload the rest of the third truck for them, and they readily accepted. We told them to go back down to Charlie's house and relax a little bit more, and we would have it unloaded in no time. The next time that they came up, their trucks were unloaded. We thanked them for their time and let them be on their way.

We spent the rest of the night organizing the furniture, and we waited the next morning for the appliances to be delivered and the satellite to be connected. After those chores were done, we gathered the paperwork for all of the cars and went to the courthouse. We stood in line and brought everything that we needed to register the cars and Jasper's motorcycle. We paid cash for the new tags, putting them in the correct names. Then we went to the Highway Patrol Station to get our new driver's licenses. We presented all of the required paperwork and paid the required fees, and before long, we had our New York driver's licenses.

Charlie told us good-bye and told us that he was going to go by the police station to scope out possibilities for a job, and we told him that we were going to register for school. We went to the high school and walked into the office. There was a student at the front desk. She looked at the four of us, her gaze hovering on Edward and Jasper longer than necessary.

"Um, how may I help you?" she asked after a minute of staring.

"We need to register for school," Edward said. "We just moved into town."

"Okay, let me get Mrs. Calcote," she said. She walked into a room off of the main office.

An older woman followed her back into the main office. "Hi. My name is Mrs. Calcote. I'm the secretary. Ashley, here, told me that you need to register for school. Where are your parents?"

"They aren't with us," Edward said. "We're here alone. We can explain in your office."

"Okay, follow me," Mrs. Calcote said, motioning us towards her office. We followed her into the room. There were two chairs, so the guys let us sit. "I must say that this is unusual. We normally have transfer students registered by their parents."

"Our parents are dead. We're emancipated minors. We have legal paperwork here declaring such." Edward took out a copy of the Motion declaring us emancipated and handed it to her. "We're also married. That is enough in the state of New York to declare us emancipated." He took out two true copies of our marriage licenses and handed them to her. "We don't need anyone's permission to enroll in school. We can sign for ourselves any legal documents. Here are our transcripts from our last high school in Denali, Alaska."

"I see. Well, these papers sure seem to be in order. I must say that we've never had married students before. I must impress upon you that the rules in the handbook concerning public displays of affection will apply to the four of you just as they apply to all of our other students," Mrs. Calcote said.

"We understand that. What we do off of campus doesn't follow us onto campus," Jasper said.

"Good. Now, if I can get each of you to fill out these information sheets." she handed us all several sheets of paper to fill out. We filled them out at human speed. When we got to the course list, we talked among ourselves at vampire volume to be sure that we filled out exactly the same courses so that we'd get the same schedule. We decided that it would be easier to stick together through all of our classes than to be separated this time. When we were finished with all of the papers, we handed them back to Mrs. Calcote. She gathered them and looked over them. "I see that you all want to take the same courses. We normally don't put siblings in the same classes. We find that they tend to disrupt class. However, upon review of your transcripts, it appears that you were all in the advanced classes and had top of the class marks. You obviously need to be in the honors classes here, and you have selected the hardest schedule that you could have. Are you all sure that you can handle it?" We nodded. "Okay, then, we'll put you together with the same schedule. If we hear the first word that you have disrupted the classes, you will be moved. Is that understood?" We nodded again. "When will you be starting?"

"I believe that we've taken care of most of our business today. I don't see any reason why we couldn't start tomorrow," Edward said.

"Okay, here are your schedules. The teachers will be expecting you. If you will step out here, I'll introduce you to our principal, Mr. Conner." We followed her out into the main office area. She knocked on a door, and we heard a man's voice tell her to come in. She opened the door and motioned us forward. We walked into the room. "Mr. Conner, I'd like to introduce you to four new transfer students who'll be starting tomorrow. This is Edward Cullen, Bella Cullen, Jasper Hale, and Alice Hale."

We stepped forward and each shook his hand. "It is nice to meet you. Where are you moving from?"

"Denali, Alaska," Edward said.

"Wow, that is really a long trip. Did your parents get transferred?" he asked.

"No, our parents are dead," Edward said.

"Then you are here with your guardians?"

"No, we are emancipated minors."

"Oh, are you sisters and brothers, cousins? What are your relationships?"

"Alice and I are brother and sister. Bella and Jasper are brother and sister," Edward started.

"But she said that you and Bella were Cullens, didn't she? Wouldn't Alice be a Cullen if she were your sister?"  
"She was, before she married Jasper. Now she is Alice Hale. The same with Bella. She was a Hale before we got married. Now she is Bella Cullen."

"Wait. You are all married?"

"Yes, sir. We got married as soon as Alice and I turned sixteen. It is the legal age in Alaska. The Juvenile Court Judge who had our case after our parents were killed knew that our parents would rather see us married than in foster care. He was a friend of our families. He knew that we were already engaged, just waiting to finish school before we were to be married anyway, so he signed for us to marry when we were of age."

"Oh, I see. I wonder how that is going to go over with the student body. This is going to be an interesting week at Ithaca High School. Well, I guess that we'll be seeing you tomorrow. Good luck."

"Thank you, sir." We shook his hand again, and we walked out of the office. I hoped that he was wrong. I wanted a quiet life in this new town. We stopped by a Wal-Mart and bought school supplies, then went home to organize them. We spent the rest of the day washing sheets and towels before putting them on the beds and in the bathrooms while also playing video games with the boys. The next day would be our official new start.


	30. Chapter 30

**Disclaimer – Stephenie Meyer owns it all.**

**Chapter 30 – Barnes and Noble dot com **

As we played the Wii that night, I kept feeling that we were being watched. I got up to go and get the last load of towels out of the dryer, and instead of coming back downstairs after I finished putting them in the bathrooms, I went into our bedroom and opened the window. I climbed out of the window onto the roof. I took a deep breath and knew at once that my suspicions were confirmed. There _was_ someone watching us. I couldn't tell exactly where he was, but I knew that he was here, near the house. I made my way to the top of the roof line, moving extremely slow so that I wouldn't give myself away. As I topped the roof, his smell became stronger. He was on the other side of the house for sure. I could see most of the backyard with the light that was given off by the Wii. After watching the yard for several minutes, I finally spotted him. He was concealing himself behind the large tree about ten yards from the sliding glass door leading into the den.

I took a running start and leaped from the roof vaulting the thirty feet as if it were one. I hit him mid-chest taking him down in one move. I restrained his movement, refusing to allow him to regain his feet. "What the hell are you doing here?" I asked him.

"I couldn't just let you guys leave. I had to know where you were going. My life wouldn't be the same without you guys in it," he said.

"If we'd have wanted you to know where we were, we'd have sent you a change of address card."

"I know that, but I needed to know where you are. I had to follow you."

"You know that Edward chose to leave you behind. He won't be happy that you followed us."

"You don't have to tell him. It can be our little secret."

"I don't keep secrets from Edward. Get up." I pulled him to his feet and drug him to the sliding glass door. I knocked on the door, and the others looked up in surprise. You could see the shock on their face when they saw who I had in my clutches.

Edward got up and opened the door. "Come in," he said. "Where did you scrape him up, Bella?"

"I felt like we were being watched all night. When I got the towels out of the dryer, I went outside on the roof and smelled him immediately. I just had to sneak up on him to get the upper hand."

"What are you doing here, Emmett?" Edward asked. "We left everyone in Lebanon."

"I couldn't live without you guys for God knows how long. I know that it was Rosalie's fault that you left, and I know that I wasn't man enough to stand up to her. I'll miss you guys. You are just as much my family as Rosalie is. I understand that you can't live with Rosie right now, but I don't want to lose you," Emmett said.

"Emmett, we didn't just leave because of Rosalie. Carlisle was just as instrumental in our leaving," Edward said.

"But, Edward, you and Carlisle have been together for a hundred years. What could he have done to make you leave him?"  
"He is still holding what happened against Bella. I know that he was hurt because I was hurt, but if I can forgive her and Jazz, then he needs to be able to as well. He hasn't done that, yet. Bella is my wife, and until the family is back in one piece, we will be living apart from them. Emmett, I do not want them to know where we are."

"Okay. I understand. I won't tell them. I told them that I was going hunting for a while, to get my head on straight. When I go back, I won't tell them about finding you. Please, though, let me come back and see you guys every once in a while."

"I don't have a problem with that. Do any of you?" Edward asked. We all shook our heads.

"I didn't want to leave my big brother bear in the first place," I said changing my hold on him from one of grasping him to one of hugging him. He returned the hug. "How long can you stay?"

"I'd better get on back. I'll have to hunt on the way. I promise to keep your location secret. I just really need to know where you guys are, so don't go and move on me before I come for my next visit, you hear."

"We won't, big brother. I promise," I said, hugging him again. The others all gave him their good-byes, and he was gone as fast as he showed up.

"Well, there goes our anonymity," Edward said. We all laughed.

"Do you think that he'll keep our secret?" I asked, leaning into Edward's body.

"Yeah, he can keep a secret when he wants to," Jasper said. "There is plenty that Rose doesn't know about and never will."

"Oh, something that we should know about?" Alice asked, putting her arms around Jasper's neck in a loving embrace.

"Not really, darlin'. Nothing that would entice your fancy. Just some interesting choices that Emmett has made while we were out at one of his bachelor parties. I could see Alice searching her visions, trying to see what exactly Jasper was talking about. After about thirty minutes, she must have hit on the one in question, because she started to laugh, loudly, and actually had to hold her stomach.

"What's so funny?" I asked her.

"Emmett," she answered, gasping for breath. "He arrived at this particular party with Edward and Jasper. Carlisle chose not to attend this one. He was acting all macho and manly; you know, sticking out his chest, flexing his arms, but trying to be discreet about it. Well, the guys don't drink, but they ordered a pitcher of beer anyway, for appearances sake. They were alternating at games of pool, when several of the bar's regulars, the women that is, started to hang around them. The guys, being the gentlemen that they are, started offering them the beer, and got them rip-roaring drunk. Then they started hanging all over Emmett because Edward and Jazz were playing that particular game of pool. Emmett was eating it up. They were kissing him, rubbing on his muscles, all of his muscles, one of which was responding to the attention. That was when he offered to take two or three of them out behind the bar and show them Master Emmett. They were all ga-ga about the chance to meet Master Emmett, but the guys in the bar weren't so thrilled. They thought that the ladies should remain inside the bar, so Emmett didn't want to disappoint the ladies or cause trouble with the guys. He was being civic conscious by not wanting to start a fight. Before Edward could read his mind, and before Jasper could correctly read his emotions, he had dropped his pants and let Master Emmett spring forth for the amusement of all of the ladies in the bar. By that time, both Edward and Jazz were aware of what he'd done, and they grabbed him by the arms and pulled him out of the establishment with his pants around his ankles."

I was laughing, but not the hysterical laugh that Alice had. "That's funny, but really, is it so unusual for Emmett to drop his drawers?"

"No, I haven't gotten to the good part, yet. After the guys got him redressed, they asked him what he thought that he was doing. He actually said, 'Improving the lives of all of the ladies before Master Emmett is again taken off of the market.' The guys laughed at him. He swore that he was serious, that women in this world should not have to go through life without having seen, if not experienced Master Emmett firsthand. He made Edward and Jazz swear to him that they would take him to every bar that they could get to before the nuptials were to begin so that he could share Master Emmett with the ladies. Well, before long, the word was getting out to the bars that a perv was showing up to flash all of the ladies and then leaving with two buddies. It got to where the bouncers were waiting on them. They had to find ways to sneak in. They would scale the buildings, enter through the bathroom windows, sneak in through the basements or the storerooms. They always found ways to sneak in, past the bouncers. Then Emmett would strut his stuff and release Master Emmett, and then they would run."

"Okay, I think that is funny, but I still don't see what had you in stitches," I said. By this time, Edward and Jasper were rolling on the floor laughing so hard that if they could cry tears, they would be streaking down his face. Alice had started laughing again, holding onto her side.

"I haven't gotten to the best part, yet," she said. "I don't think that I can tell it. Edward, you tell her."

He was laughing so hard that it took him several minutes to get calm enough to speak. Then when he tried to start talking again, he burst out laughing.

"Okay," Jasper said, sending a calming wave around the room. "By this time, we were getting mighty tired of Master Emmett and his owner. Edward and I decided to put an end to all of Emmett's showing off. We told him that the next club was a strip club, and that we had paid for a surprise for him. We had to blindfold him for the surprise." The other two started giggling again. I had no clue where this story was going. "He agreed, saying that Master Emmett would surely impress the strippers and that they would probably ask him to participate in a special strip tease just for them. We agreed that the occupants of the bar would definitely desire a performance from him when he released Master Emmett. So, blindfolded, we led Emmett into the most popular gay bar in the city. I got us a table and had him sit down, while Edward made the rounds and told some of the bigger guys that our friend was at his bachelor party but felt that he couldn't get married without experiencing some man on man lovin' beforehand. He asked them to be quiet so as not to scare him, and he led them to our table. You could see the desire on their faces when they got a good look at Emmett's body. Then I whispered to Emmett that we had gathered some admirers, and it was time for him to release Master Emmett for the final time of the night. He stood and said, 'I know what you are all looking for, and without further ado, here is Master Emmett!' He released Master Emmett, and the man at the front of the line got a large smile on his face. He immediately went to his knees and took Master Emmett into his mouth and began to blow Emmett. Emmett moaned and said, 'Oh, baby, you know what I like. You could do that to me forever, but unfortunately, I'm getting married tomorrow." The man finished the blow job, and Emmett reached down to lift his admirer to him for a kiss when he felt the man's stubble. He ripped the blindfold off. You should have seen the shock on his face. He chased us for three days. He missed his wedding which royally pissed Rosalie off, and when he wouldn't tell her why, it mad her MAD. He still won't talk about it. It is something that we don't bring up."

By this time, I was the one rolling on the floor, laughing my head off. I thought that I would die. If I had been human, I would have because of the need for humans to breath. Yes, Emmett would keep our secret. I didn't know that Edward and Jasper owned Emmett the way that they did, and now, so did Alice and I. We played with our Wii for the next several hours, and occasionally one of us would burst into spontaneous laughter.

Sometime during the middle of the night, Edward and I decided that it was bedtime. We said goodnight to Alice and Jasper, and made our way to our bedroom. Once we were behind our closed door, Edward turned and trapped me between his arms. "How are you tonight, Mrs. Cullen?"

"I'm doing rather well at the moment, Mr. Cullen. I am in our home, in our bedroom, with my husband, who I am beginning to realize is quite the trickster when he wants to be. I am going to be starting a new life in this new town with my husband tomorrow, and I'm excited about that. I won't be having to fight the girls off of my beautiful, adoring hunk of a man who I love more than the world. I can only think of one thing in particular that would make my evening better."

"And what would that be?" Edward asked me between placing butterfly kisses on my neck and upper shoulders.

"I can honestly say that the only thing that would make this evening better for me is that my husband would take me to bed and make passionate love with me until sunrise."

"I think that can be arranged, love." He leaned in slightly and placed a ghostly kiss on my lips as he reached to the lower edge of my blouse. His eyes never leaving mine, he slowly unbuttoned it, pausing at the top button and leaning in to kiss the skin that he'd already exposed. I fell into his waiting arms, and he lifted me gently, kissing me behind my ears, making me shudder, an old tease spot left over from my human days. He slowly walked to our new bed and laid me in the center. He climbed onto the bed until he was positioned over me. Then, he unbuttoned the last button on my blouse. He lifted my upper body and slowly pulled my blouse off of my arms and not so subtly threw it onto the floor. As I followed my blouse to the floor, I appreciated that his mouth was again at my neck, kissing me, then traveling down my body, past my breasts to my stomach where he paid particular attention to my navel, knowing that it was filled with nerve endings and was worth stimulating. As he was kissing my body, his hands were caressing my breasts. He would work with one, then he would move to the other, making my nipples and areola pucker and harden.

I couldn't help it. I took his face in my hands and pulled him up to my face. I kissed his lips hungrily, needing more than the teasing that he was giving me. His hands never moved from my breasts, continuing to caress them, keeping the nipples hardened. I pushed him away for a moment while I reached behind me to remove my bra. He grabbed my hands and shook his head at me. "Nuh huh, my job," he scolded.

"Then do your job," I fussed.

"In my own time. You are a goddess to be worshiped tonight," he whispered.

"No, I'm your wife, and I want to make love with you, soon," I replied. "Not next year."

"But I want to worship you. You deserve to be worshiped."

"I'll tell you what. Make mad, passionate love to me now, and worship me after. How about that?"

"Are you sure? We have hours until sunrise. Well, we have two hours until sunrise."

"Yes, I'm sure. I'm dead sure. Please, just make love to me, hard."

"Okay. If it's hard you want, it's hard you'll get." He finished undressing me, and then he undressed himself, tossing both of our clothes onto the ever growing pile of clothes at the side of the bed. He leaned over me, and I wrapped my legs around his hips. He entered me with such force that my head hit the headboard. I heard it crack, but I didn't care. When he withdrew to re-enter me, I reached around his shoulders, and with my arms and my legs were around his waist and with my newborn strength, I pulled him into me. This time, both of our heads hit the headboard, causing it to splinter and crash to the floor. Neither of us cared, he just picked me up, without leaving my body, and turned us around in the bed. He laid us catty-cornered, with our heads angled towards one of the end corner posts. Then, without missing a beat, he began again, withdrawing almost all of the way, before returning to me with all of the force that he could muster. I would meet him half-way, our bodies clashing together. I was calling out his name, calling out for "more" and "harder," and before I knew what was happening, the bed which was rocking diagonally with our efforts, gave way and we were spilled onto the floor. I looked up at Edward, and he had a wild look in his eyes. He reached behind us and pulled the mattress off of the bed and tossed it onto the floor, then he grabbed my arm and pulled me onto the mattress. This time, however, instead of placing me on the bed, he positioned me on my knees, and entered me from behind. Ah, doggie style, my favorite, and he was working it! I was so close to my orgasm before, that all that he had to do was enter me the one time, and I was over the edge. I yelled his name as my body was clenching around him, but he continued to pound into me, his left arm around my waist to hold my body, which had gone flaccid with my orgasm, to him, and his right hand monkeying with my clit. Instead of coming down from my high, I was going higher, and a second orgasm hit me. I couldn't breath, no air was moving in or out. He slowed down a bit, allowing me to come down this time, and as I started breathing again, he began to up his pace, again toying with my clit. This time, though, as he started to pound into me, I could sense a difference. He was lingering deep within me just a little longer with each thrust. He was starting to throb just a little. I knew that this time, I wouldn't be the only one who would come, and I wanted us to come together. I was already close because of all of the help that he was giving me, so I gathered up all of the energy that I had and said, "Come with me, my Edward." That was all that it took. I fell over the edge, squeezing him, and he thrust deeply inside me and spilled his hot seed inside me, roaring my name, and clutching me to him.

When we were done, we collapsed onto the mattress, him beside me, his arms wrapped around me. It seemed like a very long time before either one of us could move, much less say anything. In fact, the morning rays of the shadowed sun were well into our window before I sighed. "Thank you," I whispered, breaking the silence that had enveloped the room since he'd called my name. I pulled myself closer to him and gently kissed him on the lips, letting the kiss linger between us, telling him with my actions how much I loved him. He responded to my kiss by pulling my body against his, holding me to him, and I felt his body respond to the closeness. I rolled over, pulling him with me, and as my back made contact with the mattress, he entered me, slowly, gently, taking his time, not rushing or hurried. He kissed me, my eyes, my ears, my neck, my collar bones, as he made sweet love to me, taking his time, making sure to contact that small area that he knew so well, that area that would bring about my ecstasy all the sooner. It didn't take long before I was panting hard, trying to hold off my orgasm, wanting to come with my lover, but he was really too good at what he was doing to me. I felt myself slipping, unable to control what I knew was inevitable.

"Please, Edward. Please. I want to come with you," I begged. I reached for his head and pulled his lips to mine and kissed him with everything that I had, deep kisses, searching kisses with all of my passion in them. He started moving faster, and as I felt my orgasm pulsing through me, I felt his body stiffen as he came with me, shooting forth within me for the second time this day. He collapsed on top of me, and I held him against me, not letting him go when he tried to move away.

We laid there, connected, enjoying the closeness, until there was a knock on our door. We both looked towards the door only to hear, "Okay, you two love birds. It's seven o'clock. You should probably start to get ready for school. We don't want to be late on our first day."

"Thanks, Alice," I said, and Edward got up first, pulling me up after. We walked into the shower together where we enjoyed washing each other. Then we got dressed and met the others downstairs. They exchanged looks and grinned at us.

"Need to go shopping this afternoon, huh," Jasper said. I turned my head into Edward's shoulder. "That bed didn't even last one night." Then he laughed.

"Don't feel bad, Bella. We've broken more beds than anyone except Emmett and Rosalie. Eventually you learn to buy them for the solidity instead of the aesthetics. I'll go with you two and help you pick out another one if you want me to," Alice said.

"We should go to another store, though," I said. "I don't think that I could show my face in that one."

"Would you like that, to go with Alice?" Edward asked me. "We can take two cars, and the two of you could leave as soon as school is over."

"What, you wouldn't go?" I asked Edward, looking up into his face.

"Well, you haven't had any girl time in a long time. I think that the two of you should go. It'll give Jasper and me some time together as well."

"You two won't fight, will you?" I asked, looking between the two of them.

"Bella, have I given you any indication that I intend to handle anything with Jasper physically? I thought that we've discussed this situation enough for you to know better than that."

"You're right. I'm sorry that I doubted you. Yes, I'd love to go with Alice, but what if you don't like what we pick?"

"If it will hold together and not dump us onto the floor the first time that we make use of it, I'll be happy. Besides, if you two go, it will give me a chance to borrow Charlie's truck and haul off the broken bed."

"And just how are you going to explain a broken bed to Charlie?"

"Bella, we are married. Charlie knows that we sleep together."

"Yeah, but I can almost guarantee that Charlie and Renee never broke a bed."

"Bella, if it will make you feel better, we will carry it deep into the woods and leave it," Jasper said.

"Um, yeah, that would make me feel much better."

"Silly girl," Edward said, taking me up in his arms and kissing me. When he put me down, we went to our respective cars and drove to school. We parked in the student parking lot, and many students were drawn to Alice's Porsche. She and Jasper got out, and the four of us made our way to our first period class.

We entered the room just before the first bell rang. The teacher motioned for us to come over to her desk, and we walked over. "Hi, my name is Mrs. Summer. Which one of you is Edward?" He motioned, and she nodded. "And Bella?" I raised my hand just a little bit. She nodded again. "Edward, you take the desk in the row against the windows, the third seat back." He looked at Alice, and she nodded. He went and took the seat. "Bella, you take the seat on the second row from the wall, the second from the front. Bob, please move to the last seat on that row." The student who was in the seat that I was to sit at grumbled, but he picked up his things and moved to his new seat. I went to the seat that was newly vacated. I looked at Edward while she said, "Okay, you must be Jasper. Take the last seat on the row against the wall, and Alice, take the first seat on the row next to the window row. Camille, please move to the end of the row." Camille was obviously not happy with her move, as she slammed her books together. "Camille, would you like to voice your displeasure with your new seat?"

"No, ma'am. My seat is satisfactory," Camille said.

I was beginning to get the idea that Mrs. Summer was more of a dictator than a teacher. I looked back around at Edward, and he very slightly shook his head at me. I looked back to the front of the classroom. Mrs. Summer picked up four books, and looking inside of the front cover, she brought them to the four of us, placing them onto our desks. "I expect you to have these books covered tomorrow. Do not write in these books. Any stray marks will cost you the replacement value of the book. Do you understand?"

We nodded. I immediately came up with a plan. Alice turned and looked at me with a wry grin on her face. She barely nodded her head, and said in vampire volume, "I'm in."

"In what?" Jasper asked in vampire volume.

"Do you two really think that's such a good idea?" Edward asked in vampire volume.

"What? Don't leave me out!" Jasper said, still in vampire volume, just a bit louder.

"I'm going to go to Barnes and Noble dot com and order another copy of this textbook. Then I'm going to bring my copy to class, uncovered and mark it all up," I said in vampire volume. "I already hate this bitch."

"I'm in," Jasper said. "Come on, Edward, don't be a stick in the mud."

"I don't see why we should make trouble just to make trouble. It doesn't make sense," Edward said, again in vampire volume.

"Because we're teenagers," said Jasper, in vampire volume, of course.

"That isn't a good enough reason to get us all suspended," Edward said, in vampire volume.

"For what, writing in our own books? They can't do that," I said in vampire volume.

"The four of you will be responsible for catching up with the rest of the class. I will be available for assistance during your lunch break if you need help. We have exams on every other Friday, without exception. The next exam is this Friday. You will be expected to take it along with the rest of the class. You are also responsible for the assignments that have been due since the previous exam. They are on a piece of paper in Edward's book. As Juniors, you are expected to take and keep notes. Your notebooks will be graded during your tests on every other Friday. You will only be graded on the notes that you take during the following two days on this Friday. Do you have any questions?"

We shook our heads. "The proper response is, 'No ma'am.'"

"No ma'am," we said together. We settled back to take notes and try to pay attention. Our day had gotten off to quite an unusual start. Hopefully, it would only get better.

When the bell rang, we started to put our books away and to stand to go to our next class. "Excuse me, but exactly what are you doing? I haven't excused you yet." We looked around, and none of the others in the class had moved. We sat back down in our seats. "You do not leave your seat until I dismiss you. Do you understand?"

"Yes, ma'am," we said.

"Okay, dismissed," Mrs. Summer said. The class stood as a unit, and we all moved towards the door. Once outside of the room, Edward came up to me and put his arm around me, and Jasper went to Alice and put his arm around her.

We walked to our homeroom which was just down the hall. When we walked into the room, the teacher motioned for us to just take a seat. We went to the back of the room, and when she called out our names, we answered that we were here. For the first time, the class heard that Edward and I were both Cullens, and Jasper and Alice were both Hales. I was sitting in front of Edward, and he had my hand in his, when the girl in front of me turned around in her seat.

"Hi, Bella isn't it?" I turned to look at her. I nodded. "I'm Teresa. I'm so sorry that you guys had to experience Mrs. Summer for the first exposure to our school. Not everyone is as bad as she is. We're kind of embarrassed by her, to tell you the truth."

"Well, she is somewhat different, isn't she?" I said.

"Yes, that she is. I noticed that your last name is Cullen. Isn't that Edward's last name as well?"

"Yes, he's a Cullen, and Alice and Jasper are Hales," I said. "Jasper is my brother, actually."

"Oh, he seems pretty caught up in Alice."

"Well, he'd better be. They're married. If Ali ever caught him looking elsewhere, there'd be hell to pay. Believe me, I'd know."

"What, you mean married, married?" Teresa asked.

"Yes, married, married. Just like Edward and me. We had a double ceremony."

"Did you _have_ to get married? Oh, forget that I asked that. I can't believe that I asked you that! How exceptionally rude of me!"

"No, we didn't _have_ to get married. Neither one of us was pregnant. We got married so that we wouldn't be placed in foster care after our parents were killed in an automobile accident six months ago."

"Oh, Bella, I'm so sorry! Really, I stick my foot in my mouth so often! I just don't know when to shut up! I won't bother you anymore," Teresa said, turning back around in her seat.

I tapped her on her shoulder. "Teresa, I wouldn't have told you if I hadn't wanted to. You seem to be a nice person, and you haven't bothered me at all."

She turned back around in her seat. "Can I see your ring?" I took my hand from Edward's and showed her my wedding ring. "Wow! Is that real?"

Edward leaned around me and said, "Of course it's real. I would never give my Bella a fake ring. She deserves the best of everything, and I'm going to give it to her forever."

"Oh, that's so sweet. I wish that my boyfriend was that sweet to me. He's not the romantic type."

"Edward is the most romantic man on the face of the earth," I said, taking his hand back in my own.

"Well, I wish the two of you the best in the world," Teresa said.

"Thank you, Teresa," I said. "That's awfully nice of you."

The bell rang for us to go to our second class of the day. When we walked into the classroom, we were allowed to sit where we wanted to. We were given our books, and we were given the assignments to catch up with the class. The teacher was nice. Well, compared to Mrs. Summer, Freddy Krueger would be nice.

We went to third and fourth periods, and again, we didn't have any problems. We got our books, we got our assignments, we took notes, and we started our homework when possible. Lunch was after fourth period, and after we stored our books in our lockers, we made our way to the lunchroom following the crowd. Instead of getting lunch and throwing it away, we decided to just not partake this time. We found an empty table away from the windows and sat down. It wasn't long before Teresa had found us. She came up to our table and asked for us to join her and her boyfriend at their table. I graciously turned her down, telling her that we always sat together, and that we had some things that we needed to take care of. She went back to her table and sat down. We talked about how strange it was not to have Emmett and Rose with us. We also talked about how much the students were attracted to us, but so far, they weren't approaching us like in the other schools.

When the bell rang signaling the end of lunch, we headed for our fifth period class. We entered the room, and the teacher made us do the hated "introduce yourselves to the class" routine after giving us our books and telling us that we could sit anywhere as long as we didn't disrupt the class. Edward stepped forward and said, "My name is Edward Cullen, and this is my wife, Bella. We just moved here from Denali, Alaska." The class became a sea of mumbles, then Jasper stepped forward and said, "I'm Jasper Hale, and this is my wife, Alice. We also just moved from Denali." The mumbles grew louder as we made our way to the seats in the back of the room. Alice and I sat in front of Jasper and Edward. The teacher called the room to order, but the mumbling continued. We could hear every word of it, and we had heard it all before. We just pretended that we didn't hear anything and paid attention in class.

Sixth period was the same. We got our books and took our seats. We did what we needed to do in class, and we ignored the inane chatter. Our last class of the day was P.E. We followed the other students into the locker rooms to change into the gym uniforms. Then we followed them outside where we met the coach. He had us stretch, and then we did the usual calisthenics in lines with the class. After that, we divided into two teams and played kickball. Jasper and I ended up on one team, and Alice and Edward ended up on the other. Alice and Edward were up to "bat" first, and their team was able to score one run.

While we were in the outfield, Jazz and I were approached by a rather large boy. He was almost six feet tall and weighed at least 200 pounds. He said that his name was Tom and that he had heard that Jazz and I were married. I told him that Jazz and I were brother and sister and that I was married to Edward, and Jazz was married to Alice. He said that he didn't believe me, and I told him that I didn't care one way or another whether he believed me or not. He then grabbed me by the arm and tried to pull me towards him. I turned his hand over in mine and flipped him, tossing him to the ground. Then Jazz and I walked away from him. He jumped up and looked for us. When he found us, he started towards us again, but our team had gotten the third out, and it was time to take it in to "bat."

As we passed Alice and Edward, Edward made a point of bumping into Tom on the way into the outfield, again introducing him to the ground. This time, however, when he got up, he had a slight limp. We continued to play, and when it came around to our turns at "bat," we held back, of course, not wanting to burst the ball, and kicked the ball into the outfield, managing to take third base each time. At least we weren't playing dodgeball. At the end of the hour, none of us knew what the final score was, and none of us cared. I avoided Tom as I went and took Edward's hand. We walked back into the locker rooms to change. Alice and I were the objects of many stares, but not many of the girls would dare to say anything in front of us. They just changed and left the locker rooms.

When we left the locker room, Jasper and Edward were against the wall waiting for us. For once, there weren't any girls hanging all over them. They were alone. We took their hands and walked to our lockers to get our books for the homework that we'd need to complete once we got home. After gathering all of our books, we made our way to our cars. I gave Edward a hug and a kiss good-bye and put my books into the Volvo. Edward took out his wallet and gave me several thousand dollars, and then I got into Alice's Porsche.

Alice and I left the guys and headed into town. "Alice, do you see what Edward and Jasper are going to do while we are gone?" I asked her as soon as we were out of voice range.

"I haven't tried to look. Don't you trust them?" she asked.

"Yes, I do. I think. I mean. I do. It's just, Edward hasn't really been alone with Jasper....well, not for any length of time, since.....well, since, you know," I stammered.

"Since he and you cheated on us," Alice offered.

"Yeah, to put it bluntly, since then. I don't want to think that Edward will hurt him, but I'm just scared that he has internalized his anger against me, and that even though he doesn't think that he will, that he will turn it on Jasper even if he doesn't intend to do it," I said.

"Then you know that I can't see it. I can only see things that people intend to do once they've decided to do it. You know that. Otherwise, I would have stopped you and Jasper and prevented this whole entire mess."

"I'm sorry that I brought it up."

"No, it's okay. We haven't really been alone together either. Bella, I wish with all of my heart that this whole situation hadn't happened because of how much it has hurt everybody, but most of all, I wish that this didn't happen because of how much I know that it has hurt you. We're alone now, and I can talk to you one on one without anyone hearing what I'm telling you, so I'm going to tell you what I feel. Jasper has been with me for a long time, but in that time, we've shared a special type of love. We love each other immensely, but we also have room in our lives to love others. You are not the first person that he has loved besides me, but I do believe that you are the only one that has taken his heart besides me. That's why this has been so hard for me. None of his previous lovers has ever taken a piece of his heart. His heart has always belonged to me and to me alone, until now. Now, I know for sure that you have a piece of his heart, and to be truthful, I'm jealous of that piece of his heart that you currently own. And, to make matters worse, you are my best friend, and I see how much your having to be away from him hurts you, even if you can't admit it to yourself because of Edward. You have to keep your love for Jasper under wraps. It is a blessing that Edward can't read your mind. The problem is that Jasper can still read your emotions, and he still feels the love that you try to hide deep under the surface every time that you look into his eyes. Then he feels the love that you feel for Edward and has to hear you make love with Edward, and he's torn up by it, pacing the floor, finally having to leave the house to get some peace this morning. And then I'm feeling sorry for him, for the pain that all of this has caused and is continuing to cause him. And you wonder why I'm having a hard time dealing with what happened. My two favorite people in the whole world are hurting, and I can't do anything to help them."

"Oh, Alice. I had no idea. Oh, God! What am I doing to Jasper? What am I going to do? What can I do?" I whispered.

"You can go on loving Edward and take care of him. I'll take care of Jasper, and together, we'll all get through this situation. Now, let's go get you and Edward a new bed." She drove us to a new store. We walked around the store, and Alice told me the in's and out's of each of the beds that I liked. In the end, we settled on a solid oak bed with thick, solid corner posts with a thick headboard and footboard. It was very masculine with a dark stain and would match the other pieces that were still in our room. I paid for the bed with the assurance that it would be delivered that evening.

Alice and I then made our way home. As we pulled into the driveway, I noticed that Charlie's truck was in his driveway. I had Alice let me out at his house. It was unusual for Charlie to be home during the day, and I had a feeling that something wasn't right. I knocked on his door, and when he answered it, I knew that I was right. He hadn't shaved this morning and was still in his bathrobe.

"Dad? What's wrong?"

"What makes you think that anythings wrong?" he asked. "I'm just hanging around today, watching a little t.v. Is there anything wrong with that?"

"No, Dad. There isn't anything wrong with it, in particular. It's just that you don't just stay home and watch t.v. In as many years as I've known you, I've never known you to stay home and just watch t.v. What's wrong?"

"There isn't a job at the police station or at the sheriff's department. They are in a hiring freeze, and they said that they didn't see an end to it. I don't want to be a glorified security guard for the university, Bells. I don't know what to do. I've never been in this position before, out of work without any prospects."

"Well, Dad. There are plenty of things that you can do. You can go back to school, or you can open a private eye office, or you can take some time off and travel. I mean, there are opportunities that you have at this point that you have never had before. You have unlimited money at your disposal, and you can do anything that you want to do, or do nothing if that is what you want to do."

"Bella, I intend to pay my own way. I have never taken charity, and I don't intend to start now."

"It wouldn't be charity, Dad. It is Edward's and my money, and if I can't give my money to my Dad, then what good is it? You have taken care of me forever, and now I can give you just a little back. Did one of those options sound appealing in just the smallest sense of the word?"

"Well...."

"Come on, Dad. You can tell me. I'm your daughter. I'm going to support you no matter what you choose to do with your life."

"I've always wondered what it would be like to be a private eye. You know, to have secret clients and to sneak around and gather evidence. You must think that I'm crazy."

"No, Dad. I think that you'd be very good at it. Let's look at the requirements." I got up and went over to his laptop that Edward had set up for him. We looked up state law for private investigators, and Dad qualified because of his experience as Police Chief. He'd have to take the licensing exam. The next available exam was on November 30 and was to be held in Syracuse. That would give him about two weeks, ample time to study the material that he would need to prepare to take the exam. In the mean time, Edward and I would see to it that he had whatever he needed to set up a business in town. "Come on, Charlie. Go get dressed, and let's take a drive down town and scout out a place for you to set up shop."

"Really, Bella. Don't you think that we should give this some more thought? I mean, I only just mentioned that I've thought about doing this in the past. That doesn't mean that I could do it. I don't know anything about setting up or running a business. I don't know anything about taxes or contracts or advertising or anything that I would need to open an office. You're jumping the gun just a little aren't you?"

"We have lawyers for opening businesses and drawing up sample contracts, and we hire accountants for handling taxes and paying bills. You have the expertise for handling the investigative part of the job. We need to get you some equipment, video recorders and cameras, tape recorders and the like. Edward and Jasper can likely help us with that. We'll need to set you up with a bank account. I don't think that Edward will want you writing checks; money orders will have to do, but that is a small concession. Come on, go get dressed." He reluctantly got up and went to his bedroom. In fifteen minutes, he came out dressed and groomed. "That's better. Let's go up to the house and talk to Edward and Jasper. I'll bet that they'll have some ideas."

We walked up to the main house to find Edward and Jasper playing Guitar Hero on the Wii. When they had finished the song that they were playing, I interrupted them. Charlie and I went over what we had talked about, and Edward and Jasper were excited about the possibilities that the opportunity offered Charlie. They agreed that he should "go for it," and the four of us, Alice joined us when she heard that shopping would be involved, sat down with Charlie and started making lists of what we needed to do to get him going. Jasper, however, disagreed with Charlie having to take the licensing test. He took out his phone and called Jenks. He told him that he wanted a private investigator's license for the state of New York in the name of Charles Swan yesterday. He was also to file it with the state so there wouldn't be any problem if it was questioned. Jenks told him how much it would cost us, and Jasper told him to take it out of our account. Jenks promised him that it would be taken care of within one week. Then we all piled into Charlie's truck and headed into town to look for suitable property for his office. We all agreed that it should be somewhere near the courthouse to give him credibility. We saw several places for rent, and we looked through the windows at them. None of them seemed to match Charlie's personality, until we happened upon a small townhouse three blocks from the courthouse. It had a certain quaintness about it. While we couldn't officially see inside the upstairs, there was a deck off of the second floor in the back of the townhouse, and I unofficially climbed onto the deck to get a peek inside. It was beautiful. There was a small kitchenette with a room that could easily be used as a bedroom just in case the weather got too bad. I knew right away that this was just the place for Charlie. When I went back around to the front of the building and described the upstairs to him, the look on his face told me that he was as sold on it as I was.

It was a quarter till five so we called Mr. Samuels' office. His receptionist said that they were about to close for the day, and that she would take a message to give to him in the morning, but I insisted that she tell him that I was on the phone. Within a minute, he was answering with a what can I do for you? I told him about the townhouse and the fact that we wanted to rent it. I asked him to contact the realtor and have her meet us at the location asap to give us a tour. If everything was up to code, he was to negotiate a two year lease in the name Charles Swan. He was to create a limited liability company of the name "Swan's Investigative Services" with Charles Swan as the Sole Proprietor. I also wanted him to draw up a generic contract that could be used by Charlie in his private investigator business that would cover him from a legal standpoint. He asked me a few questions which I answered, and then he hung up.

The realtor arrived at the building ten minutes later with keys in hand. She apologized for being in a jogging suit and said that Mr. Samuels had told her that we wanted her here as soon as it was possible for her to get here, so she hadn't changed clothes. We told her that we were fine with her wardrobe as Alice grimaced. We followed her into the house, and Alice and I followed her keeping her distracted while Edward, Jasper, and Charlie went off on their own, looking at the quality of the workmanship of the building. Alice and I kept her busy with questions about water systems and gas and electric companies, so that she wouldn't notice the guys tapping on the walls and beams.

When we were finished with the tour, the guys rejoined us. We looked at them, and they nodded. I told her that we were impressed with the building, but we weren't sure about the location. We thought that it would do, and we wanted her to get in touch with our attorney, Mr. Samuels to negotiate a deal. We had another property that he was working on for us, and whichever one worked out the best was the one that we would be taking. We were in hurry for a property to settle, so her expedience would be appreciated. She got a huge grin on her face, and she turned on her heel and walked out of the building. We followed her out, making sure to lock up the place after us.

Once we got home, we got on the internet and ordered Charlie the best equipment that money could buy. I took a little detour by Barnes and Noble dot com and ordered us four copies of our Chemistry textbook to be overnighted to us. I hadn't forgotten the bitch in all of the excitement of Charlie's news.


	31. Chapter 31

**Disclaimer – Stephenie Meyer owns it all.**

**Chapter 31 - Temptation**

After doing all of our make up homework we took turns playing the Wii. For some reason, the furniture store was late delivering Edward's and my new bed. When they finally showed up at nine pm, they didn't have any excuse. We showed them where to put the pieces and told them that we'd set it up. After they left, Edward and I retired to our room. I heard Alice and Jasper go into their room, and I told Edward that I wanted to soak in the bathtub for awhile. I went into the bathroom and ran a steaming bath. I added bubble bath to the tub, and when it was full, I stepped into the tub and sank down to my shoulders.

I could hear the soft music coming from Alice and Jasper's side of the house, and before long, I could hear Jasper talking dirty to Alice. He was asking her if she liked what he was doing to her, and she must have liked it, because she only whimpered in response. I tried to tune out his voice, knowing that he was with his wife, and I needed to be with my husband, but the attraction was still there, and I wanted him to be doing those things to me. I laid back into the tub and closed my eyes, trying not to hear Alice's groans and yells, knowing exactly how Jasper could make me feel, how he could make me groan that way. I wasn't successful, and soon I was wet and desperate for contact with him. I thought about getting out of the tub and going to Edward to solve my problem, but that would be almost as bad as if I slept with Jasper again, at least in my eyes. I couldn't use Edward to substitute for Jasper. When I was with Edward, it had to be because I wanted to be with Edward. So, I stayed in the tub, horny and wet, aching for Jasper, listening while he made love to my best friend and his wife.

After an hour of pure torture, they seemed to be finished. I got out of the tub and got dressed. I went downstairs and started playing guitar hero again to work off some of my stress. Edward had gone to play his piano about twenty minutes before I got out of the tub, and he was still playing. I told him where I'd be as I stepped through the room. After a little while, Jasper came into the game room and took a seat beside me. We were alone together for the first time since our indiscretion.

"How are you doing?" he asked me in a whispered voice.

"I miss you desperately," I whispered, and then I said, "You want to play?" loud enough for the others to hear.

"Yeah, sure. I'm up to whoopin' up on you," he said, also loud enough for them to hear, but then he added, "I miss you, too. I ache to hold you in my arms," in a voice so low that I almost didn't hear him. "You be guitar, and I'll play bass," he said, picking songs that he knew that I could play.

We started the set, and of course, he didn't miss a note. I found myself watching him out of the corner of my eye, and the wetness that I had fought so hard earlier returned full force. I was so aroused just from watching him play that stupid game that I failed a song that I could normally play. I knew that Jasper was aware of my situation because he had started missing notes as well. I apologized for failing the song, but my apology was for much more.

"It's okay. We'll just take you down to hard from expert and try again." He took my hand in his and silently brought it to his lips where he kissed it. I felt a million sparks shoot from my hand through my body, ending up between my legs, where my muscles clenched involuntarily, hungry to take him within me.

"No," I said, getting up from the floor. "I think that I have had all that I can handle for now. Maybe we can play again another time." I looked him in the eyes and whispered, "I'm sorry," and I walked away.

I went to the music room where Edward was still playing. I walked up behind him and wrapped my arms around his neck. "Will you come hunting with me?"

"Are you sure that it's me that you want to go hunting with?" he asked, a slight edge to his voice.

"Yes. I'm very sure. I need to get away from the house for a while, and there is no one that I'd rather be with right now than you. I need you right now. I need your strength right now, please."

He got up from the piano and turned around and took me into his arms, hugging me tight. "Thank you," he said as he kissed me. Then he took my hand in his, and we left through the front door. We ran into the woods several miles before we spoke again. "Tonight has been hard for you, hasn't it?" he asked.

"Yes. It has," I answered, slowing down our run to a walk and taking his hand into mine. I was determined to tell him everything. He was my husband, and I loved him more than life. I chose him, and I intended to keep that promise. We couldn't be strong without open communication. "I heard Jasper and Alice making love, and I got turned on by the thought of Jasper making love. I tried hard to turn off the thoughts, but they were there. I tried not to imagine that he was with me, but I'm sorry, Edward, they were there. I got aroused by them, and I tried to make them go away. I went downstairs to play the Wii, and it worked for a little while, but then he came downstairs and joined me. He asked me how I was, and I told him that I missed him. Edward, I'm sorry."

"It's okay that you told him that you miss him. You do. I also understand that you got turned on listening to them have sex. I lived in the house with three very sexually active couples for almost a hundred years. It is very hard not to get turned on when you hear others enjoying sex."

"Thank you for giving me a way out, but you know that I wasn't turned on because they were having sex. It was because I was picturing Jasper having sex, and I was substituting me in Alice's place."

"I know, Bella. I know that you are struggling with your feelings for Jasper. I also know that you love me, and I'm so sorry that I cannot share you. Sometimes I think that if I was more liberal with my views, and I could just let you and Jasper be together in a sexual way, you would be happy, and we would have a happy marriage. But, I am not that man, Bella. I cannot do that. I cannot share you."

"I know that, Edward. That's why we are here now. I think that if I hadn't already been so turned on by Alice and Jasper's love making, I would have been better able to be in the same room with him alone, but with things already as they were, I was just getting more and more turned on by being alone with him. I was beginning to feel as if I was going to lose control, so I left and came to you. I'm not saying that I would have slept with him, but I was getting close to wanting to touch him, or heaven forbid, kiss him. I promised you that I would never do those things with him again, so I needed to get away from him."

"You did the right thing. Thank you for coming to me. It wasn't really a test as such, but I was watching and listening to see how the two of you interacted. I was acutely aware that you were alone together, and I had to fight myself not to go 'chaperon' the two of you. I had to figuratively sit on my hands to trust you to do the right thing."

He moved closer to me and took me into his arms. He lifted my chin so that I was looking into his eyes. Then he lowered his lips to mine, barely brushing them against my own. From there, he moved his lips to my eyelids, barely touching them with his kisses. I felt myself melting into him. He lifted me into his arms, sweeping me off of my feet. His kisses moved to my ears, ghosting over the lobes, then the areas behind them. I felt chills go through my body, an answering tremble to his gentle touches. My eyes closed, he continued to strategically place his gentle lips to my eyes, my forehead, my lips, anywhere and everywhere. I felt a gentle breeze pick up, flowing through my hair, adding to the extraordinary mood that his kisses were creating. I felt as if I were floating on a million clouds, my lover hovering over me, brushing my lips with his, grazing my face with his butterfly kisses.

I sank into the clouds, relaxed into my lover's arms, allowing him to lavish me with his affection. As the air around me seemed to warm slightly, I felt myself falling into the clouds and realized that I was no longer in my lover's arms. Both of his hands were now touching me. One was in my hair, pulling my head closer to him, and the other was beneath my shirt, caressing my breast. I was still lying in the clouds, but he no longer supported my weight. As his fingers worked in my hair, his lips moved down to my neck. I arched my head back into the clouds to give him better access. He turned my head with his hand, and his lips searched out the area behind my ear, giving it an open mouthed kiss, sucking on it, pulling on my earlobe, then returning to my neck, the area immediately under my ear, again sucking on it, grazing it with his teeth. Another set of shivers coursed through my body, and he blew a hot breath onto my neck, making the shiver repeat itself.

Then his kisses moved lower, to my collar bones, and to the hollow that formed between them. I kept my neck extended, allowing him more room, and he took full advantage as he kissed and sucked on my neck and upper chest. I'm not sure when he unbuttoned my shirt, but when his kisses moved down onto my bare chest, I realized that neither my blouse nor my bra were there. He removed his hand from behind my head, allowing it to sink back into the clouds, and moved it to my breast, the one that wasn't being suckled by his amazing mouth. His tongue was dancing the samba with my nipple which was hard and oh so sensitive. I felt the pull in my wetness which was soaking for my husband. I bucked my chest into his mouth, and he bit down onto my nipple. I came, calling out "Oh, God!" and reaching out for Edward's face which I grabbed with both of my hands and pulled up to my face so that I could kiss him, deep and hard.

When he broke the kiss, he said, "Did you like that, love? Well, then you'll like this even more." He went back to my breasts, taking one with his hand and the other in his mouth. He continued to suck and pull on my nipple, bringing it back to its previous hardened state. With his other hand, he stroked my stomach, pausing at my jeans to undo the button and push them and my panties out of the way. I lifted my hips ever so slightly to give him some assistance. When they were far enough down, I removed them with my legs, leaving myself naked in the clouds. Oh, well, my creator had seen me naked before. With that thought, I felt his fingers enter me at the same time that he bit down on my nipple again. I heard him whisper, "So wet for me," around my nipple, as I thrust myself forward, taking his fingers deeper inside of me. It wasn't long before I was coming again, gripping his fingers with the force of my orgasm.

Before I could come down completely, I felt him enter me. He thrust within me, gently at first, but steadily building until we reached our peak together, him calling my name, and me calling his. We both fell back into the clouds as his lips found mine again. We kissed until the sun rose and rays started to break through and shine onto us. It was then that I realized that we were in our bedroom and in our bed. At some point, Edward had carried me home. We had never hunted, but the alternative was better.

We got out of bed and made our way to the shower. After cleaning off the evidence of our making love, we got out and got dressed. The sun coming through the window was brighter than normal. We went downstairs to find Alice who was sitting on the couch. "Alice, is the sun going to be out today?" I asked.

"No, it will go behind some slowly moving clouds in about thirty minutes. We should be fine to go to school today. It will shine for about twenty minutes about ten o'clock, but we won't be affected."

"Okay. Did you cover your books?" I asked.

"No, forgot to. Well, we can use an old set of curtains that I found in the attic. I'll go and get it, and I'll cover all of the books if you'll go get your's and Edward's. Mine and Jasper's are in our bookbags right inside of our door. Please get them, too."

"Okay." I went to get our books and put them on the coffee table in front of the couch while Alice went to get the curtains and the other supplies that she would need to cover the books. Then I went upstairs to their room to get their books. I knocked on their door, but I didn't get an answer. I opened the door to get their bookbags, and when I did, Jasper was coming out of the bathroom dressed in nothing but a towel. "Oh, I'm sorry. Alice sent me up here to get your books. We have to cover the Chemistry books," I stammered.

"It's quite alright. The bags are over there," he said pointing. They were across the room, next to where he was standing.

"I'll come back later. You finish up." I started to close the door and back out, but he moved at vampire speed and blocked the door.

"There is no need. I'll get the bookbags for you, and you can take them to Alice." He smelled so good. I turned around with my back to him. It didn't really do any good. I had already seen his sculpted body, and the vision was imprinted on my brain. I closed my eyes to try to get the vision of his near naked sculpted body out of my mind, but it wouldn't go.

I shook my head. I thought, "Edward, Edward, Edward. Edward's hands on my body. Edward pleasuring me." Okay. That's better. That's much better.

"Here you are. Just as promised." I turned around to get the bookbags from him and couldn't help but notice the now prominent erection that he had.

"Thank you, Jasper. I'd better get these to Alice. You know how she hates to wait."

I turned to leave, and he grabbed me by the arm. "Bella," he said in a whispered volume.

"No, Jasper. I can't do this. I belong with Edward, and you belong with Alice. We don't belong to each other. We promised them that we wouldn't do this." I pulled my arm away from him and walked away. I stopped at the bottom of the stairs and took several deep breaths, then I gathered my courage and walked into the den and took the bookbags to Alice.

"Tough time?" Alice asked knowingly.

I sighed. Either she heard our conversation, or she'd had a vision. Either way, she knew. "It's getting better," I said.

"Really??" she questioned.

"No, not really. But I have to keep telling myself that, or I'll never make it get better. I know that I'm hurting, and I know that I'm hurting him, but I don't know how to keep our promises any other way. Edward won't share," I laughed.

"No, I wouldn't think that he would," she joined in my laughter. We sat there and covered the four books. When they were done, I took our two and put them back inside of our bookbags. "Did you order the copies?" Alice asked as I was leaving the room.

"Yes, I ordered them last night after we ordered Charlie's supplies. I had them ship them overnight. We should get them today. Tomorrow should be interesting."

"I can't wait. The look on that old bag's face will be priceless."

"I know. I'm sure that we will be sent to the office for the prank, but it will be worth it. Do you have some highlighters for tomorrow?"

"Of course. I always come prepared. You'll just have to choose your color. I've already chosen blue."

"I want orange. It was what I always used in undergrad."

"What are you two up to?" Edward asked as he came downstairs.

"We are choosing our highlighter colors to mark up our new Chemistry textbooks tomorrow. Alice chose blue, and I chose orange. What color do you want?" I answered him.

"Are you two still planning on going through with that juvenile prank?" he asked, shaking his head.

"Uh, huh. Oh course we are. Firstly, she separated us. There is no reason at all for her to have separated us. Secondly, she is just too anal-retentive. Someone who is that anal-retentive needs to have it shoved up their ass," Alice said.

"Talking about me again, I see," Jasper said, coming downstairs.

We all laughed. "No, silly. We're talking about Mrs. Summer and her rules. 'Don't mark up your books. Have your books covered before class tomorrow,'" Alice mimicked Mrs. Summer.

"Well, yeah, she is a tight ass if I've ever seen one," Jasper said. "Did you order the books, yet, Bella?"

"Yep. Did it last night. They should be here this afternoon. We were discussing what color highlighters we wanted to use to mark up our books. Alice picked blue, and I picked orange. What color do you want?"

"Pink of course," Jasper said. "I can't wait to see her face. It's going to be priceless."

"Our sentiments exactly," Alice said, "except for ole' fuddy duddy over here."

"Okay, okay. I'm in. I guess I'll take yellow. That's what's left, right," Edward said.

"Great! It's going to be so cool. I can't wait," I said.

"Great! The newborn is excited. Do you think that you can keep her in check, Edward?" Jasper said.

"Oh, I think that I can handle her," Edward said, grabbing me and throwing me over his shoulder. I squealed and pounded him on his back.

"Put me down!" I cried as I pounded.

"Are you going to be good, or am I going to have to bend you over my knee and give you a spanking?" Edward asked me.

"Oh, I'm going to need the spanking, I think," I said, pounding at his back, "but it is going to have to wait until after school. We're going to be late as it is." I had gotten a good look at the clock over the mantle as he had thrown me over his shoulder, and we had ten minutes to be in the classroom.

He turned and looked at the clock and almost threw me in his hurry to put me down. We all grabbed our bookbags and raced to the Volvo. With Edward's driving, we made it to the school with two minutes to go. We rushed at human fast speed to the classroom, not even stopping by our lockers. We had the strength to carry all of our books all day, so it really didn't matter if we stopped or not. We took our seats just as the bell finished ringing.

Mrs. Summer looked up from her desk and eyed each of us in turn. She stood up in front of the class and said, "Maybe I didn't make myself clear yesterday. Being that you are new to this school, this is your last warning. When that bell rings, it means that you are in your desk with notebook and pen ready to begin class. It doesn't mean for you to be sliding into the desk. It is your responsibility as Juniors to be to class in an appropriate amount of time to be prepared to work as soon as the bell completes it's ring. Failure to so prepared will result in a tardy. Do you have any questions?"

"No ma'am," we said in unison.

"Perfect. Now, pass forward last evening's homework." She watched as the homework was passed forward, then passed across the rows to end at her desk. "Do you new students have any make up work to pass forward?"

"Yes ma'am," we said in unison.

"Very well. Pass it forward." We took out all of the make up work and passed it forward. It, too, gathered at her desk. "Now, allow me to see your textbooks." We removed them from our bookbags. She nodded, and we placed them back into our bookbags, not needing them for class. She then went to the dry erase board and continued her lecture from where she left off the day before. We took notes like good little children. When the bell rang, we waited for her to dismiss us, and left with the rest of the class.

During homeroom, I again sat behind Teresa. Today, she seemed sort of sullen. "Hi, Teresa. How are you, today?"

She jumped when I mentioned her name. She turned around, "Oh, hi Bella. I'm fine."

"You don't seem fine. You were in never-never land."

"Oh, I was just thinking. It's nothing. I'm okay, just a little distracted today. How are you adjusting?"

"Well, we didn't get up when the bell rang today, so I guess that we're doing better. Now, I guess that we have to learn to get there on time," I laughed. She just smiled. I could tell that she was really distracted. "I'll let you get back to your thoughts," I said.

"No, it's okay. Really. I need to get my mind on school. I don't think that I took the first note in Chemistry. My notebook grade is going to suffer, and mom is going to kill me," she said.

"Why don't you take my notes and copy them. I don't mind."

"You don't. Really. That would save my life. I'd be so grateful. I'll get them back to you after lunch."

"It's no problem," I said as I reached into my bookbag and pulled out my chemistry notebook and handed her the pages of notes that I took today.

"You have such pretty handwriting."

"Thank you. And don't worry about rushing with them. Tomorrow morning is fine."

"Thanks again. You really are a life saver, Bella."

The bell rang for our next class, and we went to it and the next. When lunch came around, we took the table that we'd taken the day before. Teresa again approached us and invited us to sit with her and her boyfriend, and again I graciously declined. She hung her head as she walked back to her table and took her seat across from her boyfriend. He immediately took her hand and asked her why she had invited us to sit with them. She told him that she was just trying to be nice to us because we were new, and he told her that he wanted to be alone with her. He asked her if she was okay, and she shook her head. He lowered his voice and said, "I'm so sorry, Teresa. I didn't mean to let things get out of hand last night. You know that I wouldn't do anything to hurt you on purpose. You know that I didn't mean to let things go that far. I'm so sorry. I would do anything to take last night back if I could."

She pulled her hands out of his and said, "I love you more than I can say, Christopher, but I can't talk to you right now." She got up from the table and ran out of the cafeteria. I got up and ran out after her. I didn't see where she went, but I followed her scent and found her behind the building, leaning against the wall, crying.

I walked up to her and put my arm around her shoulder. "Do you want to talk about it? Sometimes it helps when you get it off of your chest," I said as I pulled her around into me. She buried her head into my shoulder and cried until she had no more tears.

Then she raised her head and looked into my eyes. "You have the prettiest eyes, Bella. Has anyone ever told you that? The color is so unusual."

"Yes, my brother and Edward and his sister have the same eyes that I have. It is much more common in Alaska than it is here. Come on. Let's sit down. Are you ready to talk about it?"

"I don't know what to say. You aren't from here, so you don't know my family. My Dad is the pastor of the largest church in town. His services are televised every Sunday. My brother is in Seminary, and my sister is a missionary. We have all been brought up to be the perfect children from the time that we were born. We have the perfect manners. We have the perfect grades. We have always been perfectly behaved, especially in church. We weren't allowed to date until we were sixteen, and our dates were required to be church going young men and women of the best moral servitude. We were forced to take vows of chastity and to wear chastity rings. In a nutshell, we were supposed to be perfect children."

"It sounds like an impossible dream for you to live up to."

"It hasn't been easy. Christopher has been a dream, though. He met my family and easily won their approval. He's never given them reason to worry. He's always been the perfect gentleman, always having me home on time, never making any inappropriate moves. He doesn't smoke or drink alcohol. He goes to church and is there with me on Sunday mornings. He's always been perfect."

"But..."

"Until last night." The tears were flowing again. I took her hand in mine and gave it a little squeeze.

"Go on."

"Well, we went to a movie, and during the movie, we held hands, just like always. It was a romantic comedy, and I was happy and laughing, and during one particularly good scene, he leaned across my seat and kissed me. I was ecstatic. It was our first real kiss. I mean, he had kissed me on the cheek before, but he had never kissed me on the lips before, and I liked it. Maybe I liked it too much, because I kissed him back. We didn't watch the rest of the movie. We spent the time kissing. When the movie was over, we weren't ready to go home. I called home and told them that we were going over to a friend's house for a little while, and Mom extended my curfew until ten thirty. Christopher drove us to a spot on his family's property which was secluded and set his watch for ten o'clock so that we'd be able to get me home by my curfew, and we climbed into the backseat of his car and continued to kiss."

She paused here, and I gave her a minute to gather her thoughts. When she didn't go on but started to cry harder, I pressed, "Kissing isn't the only thing that you did, though, is it?"

She shook her head, no. "No, before long, his hands were under my shirt, touching me. It felt so good, Bella. I took my shirt off, and he took my bra off. I started to cover myself, but he pulled my arms away and said that I was beautiful. He held my boobs in his hands, then he bent down and kissed them. It felt so good, and when he pulled me onto his lap, you know, straddling him, I could feel him pressing against me. Bella, God help me, it felt good. Then he started moving against me, and I couldn't stand it. When he put my hand against him, I didn't pull back." The tears were flowing freely now. "I unfastened his pants and put my hand inside. I touched him, Bella. Oh, my God, I touched him." She was sobbing into my shoulder. I tried to calm her down, wishing with all of my might that Jasper was near, needing his calming power.

"Go on," I whispered to her, knowing that she had to get it all out.

"Then he unfastened my pants and pulled them off of me, my panties, too." She was close to hyperventilating.

"Go on," I said, rubbing her back.

"I laid down on the seat, and I pulled him on top of me, between my legs. And we did it. We made love. Right there, in his back seat. I let _it_ happen. I just know that my Dad is going to find out, and he will kill me and Christopher. He'll kick me out of the house. I've disgraced him. Oh my God! What have I done?" She collapsed into my arms.

I held her until she had again cried all of her tears. When she had calmed down some, I sat her up. "Teresa. Look at me. This isn't the end of the world. So you made love with your boyfriend. Girls do that all of the time, and the wrath of God doesn't strike them dead. I know that you were raised to be a different person, but things happen in the heat of the moment. We are human, and humans make mistakes. If your Dad is as holy as you think that he is, he will forgive your mistake. What we need to worry about right now is you. I take it that neither you nor Christopher planned to make love last night."

She shook her head no. "No, we had never even kissed before yesterday."

"Then I'm pretty safe to guess that neither of you used any protection, did you?"

"No, I'm not on the pill, and he didn't use a....a.."

"A condom. Okay. We need to get you the morning after pill. All you have to do is go to the pharmacy and ask for it. I believe that it is a national law that pharmacies are allowed to give it out without a doctor's prescription if a woman requests it. Hold on, let me check in New York." I pulled out my I-Phone and looked up the law for New York State. "Oh, sorry, you have to be eighteen to request it without a doctor's prescription."

"It wouldn't matter anyway. I couldn't go to a pharmacist in town to get it. They all go to my Dad's church. I couldn't take the chance that they would tell my Dad."

"I'll get it for you. I'll have it for you in the morning. I know that it will be on the last day, but it should still protect you. At least it will be better than nothing at all."

"How can you get it, Bella? You aren't eighteen either."

"Yes, but I'm an emancipated minor. I'm not held by the same age restrictions that you are held by. I should be able to get it without any problems. I'll do my best."

"Bella, you're the greatest. I don't know what I'd do without you." She jumped up and pulled me up. Then she jumped into my arms. I hugged her tightly, but not too tightly. The bell rang signaling the end of lunch. We walked around the building, and she saw Christopher walking with his head down. She ran up to him and took his hand into her own. When he looked up at her, you could tell that he had shed a few tears of his own. When he looked into her eyes, his eyes lit up like a bonfire. The life seemed to come back into them. He put his arm around her shoulder, and they walked off together towards the science building.

I found Edward and the others and joined them. I quickly told them what was going on, and they were shocked that people still held such strong beliefs today. Edward, especially, felt sorry for her. He said that he could sympathize with her, having shared those same beliefs for so long. He offered to talk to her, but I told him that I didn't think that it would do her any good, hearing that she'd messed up coming from a man. I told them my plan to get her the morning after pill in my name for her this afternoon, and they agreed that it was the right thing to do.

We made it through our afternoon classes just fine. P.E. went well, and we didn't have any problems from our super jerk from yesterday. After school, Edward stopped at the largest drug store in town. I grabbed one of the copies of my Declaration of Emancipation which we kept in the car and went inside the store. I made my way back to the pharmacy where there was a rather long line. I took my place in the line and patiently waited. When my turn came to speak to the pharmacy tech, I looked her in the eye and said, "I would like the morning after pill, please." There were several harummphs from some of the older women who were waiting on prescriptions, but I ignored them.

"I need to see some identification," the technician said. I took out my wallet and pulled out my driver's license. Then I handed her my copy of my Declaration of Emancipation. "According to this, you are only seventeen. You must be eighteen to get the morning after pill without a doctor's prescription."

"That is why I showed you the copy of my Declaration of Emancipation. It states that I am not bound by the laws that are age restrictive. According to that piece of paper, you are to consider me as if I were twenty-one."

"I'm not familiar with this form. I need to ask my pharmacist. It'll be just a moment," she said.

"I've got all of the time in the world," I said. I stepped back from the counter. While I waited, I walked to the aisle with the condoms on it. I grabbed a couple of boxes and put them in my carry basket then I walked back to the counter area to wait for the technician to return.

I couldn't help smile as two, wonderful hands wrapped themselves around my body, burying themselves into my front pockets. "What's taking so long, love?" Edward asked as he embraced me.

The old women just glared at the two of us, staring hard enough to drill a hole right through my forehead and into him. "They're trying to decide if the Declaration of Emancipation makes me old enough to by the pills without a doctor's prescription."

"What are the condoms for? You know that I don't like anything to come between us when we make love."

"I know, sweetheart, but I thought that we might try some back door action and see what that feels like. I know that you've wanted to try that."

"Emmmm, you're the best, love. I can't wait to get you home. That new whip was supposed to arrive in the mail today." He pulled me back against him, flush with his body. I couldn't help but to groan with anticipation. I could hear Alice and Jasper in the row behind us trying hard not to laugh out loud. They were about to lose it. The ladies who were standing around the counter were starting to look away, trying to find anywhere to look besides at us. A couple of them were starting to fan themselves.

It was then that a younger woman who had been standing on the periphery came forward. "That's enough! That display is totally inappropriate! You are still children, and your parents should be notified about the way that you are hanging all over each other, especially in public. Give me your names at once. I intend to notify your parents about this display."

That was when Alice and Jasper lost it. They came around the aisle laughing. "Yeah, you heathen kids. Tell the nice lady your names. You are going to be in such trouble when your mommy and daddy hear about the way that you are acting!" Alice said.

"I'm sure that you two will be grounded.... to your room!" Jasper added, slapping his knee.

We started laughing as well. It was then that the pharmacy assistant called out, "Ms Cullen. The pharmacist approved of your morning after pills. He said that you are to take one now, and another exactly twelve hours from now. Here is your paperwork back." I walked up to the counter and took back the paperwork and my license. I took out my wallet and paid for both the pills and the condoms.

As I turned to leave, the lady stepped in front of me. "Oh, you're the new kids that my daughter told me about. She said that she had talked to one of you, Bella Cullen."

"Yes, that's me," I said, holding out my hand to shake hers.

She looked at my hand as if it had leprosy. "I thought so when Clara called your name. I want you to stay away from my daughter. You are a bad influence on her. I don't want anyone of your caliber coming into contact with her."

"You don't know me. How can you judge me and make that decision without knowing me?"

"I know enough from just observing you and your boyfriend, and your friends for the past twenty minutes. It is obvious that you are sexually active, and you don't make any qualms about trying to hide the fact. You act in an overtly sexual manner in public, and you obviously aren't careful about your activities as evidenced by your need for the morning after pill."

"First, you are no one to judge. Second, my 'boyfriend' and I are married, so, yes, we are sexually active, and no, we don't hide that fact. Third, if it is any of your business, we can't have children, so the morning after pill isn't for me, and neither are the condoms. They are for a very good friend of mine who has gotten into a little bit of trouble and needs my help. By the way, you've told me to stay away from your daughter, but you haven't told me who she is. I've met a lot of people this week, and I'd like to know who I'm supposed to stay away from."

"Fair enough. Her name is Teresa Goodman. Her Father is the pastor of the First Presbyterian Church here in town. She doesn't need to be associated with the likes of you. Don't worry. I'll tell her at supper, tonight."

"Oh, so that's how church works in this town. You find someone who you think is a bad influence, and you toss that person to the wind. You make sure that the person isn't associated with your family, heaven forbid that the righteous may be tempted to follow in the paths of unrighteousness. Don't worry, I won't corrupt your daughter. My kind usually stays far away from your kind anyway."

"Come on, Bella. You got what you came for. Let's go. Don't forget that temper of yours that tends to get out of control so easily," Edward said, taking my arm and gently pulling me away from Mrs. Goodman. "I don't want to have to step between the two of you."

"Come on, Bells. She's not worth it. Let's keep our mouths to ourselves," Alice said, taking my other arm and tugging a little bit harder as I was starting to resist Edward's pull. I felt a wave of calm wash over me, and I glared at Jasper who, after looking me in the eye, hit me with a dose of lust.

I pulled my arms away from Edward and Alice and walked up to Jasper. I put my arms around his neck and kissed him on the lips. Then I forced myself to pull away from him, pulled back my fist, and hit him with all of my strength. He hit the floor, hard. I leaned down and whispered in vampire volume in his ear, "That is for fucking with my emotions all day." I stepped over his body, grabbed Edward's hand, and led him out of the store. As we stepped through the front doors, I turned to Alice and said in vampire volume, "I assume that you two can find a way home."

"Yes, we can," I heard her say.

I walked to the passenger's side of the Volvo and got in. Edward got into the driver's side, and without saying a word, he drove us home. There was a package on the front door step, and I went around to bring it inside. It was our copies of the Chemistry book. I put them on the dining room table. Edward was quiet, just watching me.

"I'm sorry for my behavior in the store," I began. "but she is so hypocritical. She expects for so much out of Teresa, yet, she judges out of context."

"Bella, we were acting like two, out of control teenagers who were tormenting the old ladies. She had every right to accuse us. I just couldn't tolerate sitting outside, hearing all of those old ladies rake you over the coals in their heads. First they judged you for asking for the morning after pill, then they judged you for coming back with the condoms. They were thinking that you were just some loose girl who slept around for the fun of it. That was when I'd had enough. I had to show them that you had a lover, only one lover, and it was me. When I approached you, they thought that I was your man of the hour, not your lover, and it made me angry. I'm so sorry that I acted out in front of everybody."

"Are you kidding, Edward. I thought that it was great. You came out of your comfort zone. You claimed me in public, and not just as your girlfriend, but as your lover. I was thrilled. That's more of a public display of affection than all of the others combined. I was loving it. Don't apologize to me."

"Then, you're not angry at me for the way that I acted?"

"No, not at all. The only person that I'm angry at is Jasper. He hit me with a huge helping of lust right there in the middle of the store. I don't know what he was thinking. It's bad enough that I've been attracted to him all day, that I've wanted him all day, but for him to hit me with such a large amount of lust. My God! You guys are lucky that I didn't jump one of you right there. As it is, I'm so sorry, Edward. I kissed him. Oh, God! I kissed Jasper. Oh, No! Edward! I didn't mean to! Oh! God! No! No!" I crumpled up into a ball on the floor, sobbing. "No! Oh, God! No! I didn't mean to! No! No!" I crawled to Edward and grabbed his feet. "Oh! Please, Edward, Please! Don't leave me! Please! Don't Go! Please! I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to! Oh! God! No! Please tell me I didn't do it! Please! Please! Don't Go!"

Edward fell to his knees in front of me and pulled me into his arms. "Shhh, Bella. I have no intention of going anywhere anytime soon. Jasper told me what he was going to do, and I told him okay. He was just trying to distract your anger from Mrs. Goodman. We couldn't have you go all newborn vampire in the middle of the pharmacy, and you were overpowering Alice and me. I know that you couldn't control what happened. I'm not going anywhere."

"You're not?" I cried, and I jumped into his arms. I wrapped my arms around his neck and hugged him with all of my might. "When I realized what I'd done, I thought that I'd lost you forever. My soul was shattering." I glanced at the door and saw Jasper and Alice. They had heard everything that we'd said. Jasper's face fell, and he turned around and walked away. Alice started to go after him, but I broke away from Edward, and looking at him and Alice, I said, "Let me go. We need to talk." Edward looked into my eyes, and whatever he saw there convinced him. He nodded his head, and he and Alice walked into the kitchen.

I turned and walked outside, shutting the door behind me. I followed Jasper's scent into the woods, running until I caught up with him. I followed him until he finished walking, just like I did that day so long ago.


	32. Chapter 32

**Disclaimer – Stephenie Meyers owns it all.**

**Chapter 32 – Mrs. Summer's Lesson**

Jasper finally stopped walking and turned to face me. "Are you sure that you want to be alone with me?"

"Jasper, we need to talk, and we don't need anyone interrupting us. Will you sit down?"

He sat down against a fallen tree, and I sat down beside him. "Is this where you tell me how special I was to you and how you never want to see me again?" he asked.

"Where did you get that from, some cheesy movie?" I asked.

"Well, that's what you're going to tell me, isn't it, even if it isn't in so many words?"

"Jasper, I love you."

"But...."

"but, I love Edward."

"I know that, Bella. I'm the one who told you that, remember?"

"Yes, I remember. Jasper, please, why are you making this so hard?"

"Because I love you, Bella, and I'm not willing to just let you go," he said, taking my hand into his and bringing it to his heart. "I thought that I could. I thought that I could let you go back to Edward and have a nice life, just the two of you, but I can't. I hear the two of you together, and I want to explode. I hear your voice, and I get hard for you. I smell your scent, and I want to be inside of you. I ache for your touch, for your lips against mine. Bella, I want you. I need you to be whole."

"Jasper, that isn't going to happen. I love Edward, and I made a promise to him that I intend to keep. He is my soul mate. I am his singer. Our bond cannot be broken. I love you, Jasper. God help me, I love you. This would be so much easier if I didn't, but I do. I hear you with Alice, and I want to be the one with you. I ache for your touch, for your kiss, for your caress. But, _I'm not yours_. I belong with Edward. I cannot go on wanting something that can never be, and neither can you. You have to give up wanting me, as I have to give up wanting you. You have Alice, and I have Edward. They are our mates. They are the ones that we are meant to be with. Your advances aren't doing anything but hurting me, Jasper. They are making me ache for what I know that I can never have. I have chosen to be with Edward, and Edward won't share. You have got to accept that and move on. What you are doing is hurting you; it is hurting me; it is hurting Alice; and it is hurting Edward."

Jasper let go of my hand and stood up. He started pacing. He was running his hands through his hair. Even I, not being an empath, could tell that he was despondent. He was muttering to himself so quickly that I couldn't understand what he was saying. I could only pick up bits and pieces, a word here or there, a "never" or a "mine." The look in his eyes was foreign, distant, even elusive. They never met mine, though I tried time and again to catch them.

Finally, I stood. I stepped in front of his pacing, causing him to detour in his chosen route. He never looked at me until I put my hands onto his shoulders and turned him to face me. I slapped him, hard, one time. He seemed to hesitate for a split second, but just as quickly as he seemed to recognize me, he was gone again. He pulled me into him, gathering my hands behind my back in a hold that I couldn't break. His lips found mine, and he kissed me, hard, forcing his tongue into my mouth. I tried to turn my head away from his, but he took my hands and gathered them into one of his own, in effect releasing his other hand, and with it, he held my head still, pressing it against his while he continued to kiss me.

I continued to struggle with him, causing him to hold me tighter. I bit his tongue, and he pulled away long enough for me to cry out, "Jasper, No!" before he had pushed me to the ground, adjusting his hold on me to force my arms into a position that hurt really badly. I cried out in pain as I felt one shoulder pop out of joint. He leaned over me and with his free hand, he ripped my shirt from my body. He attacked my breast with his mouth, sucking and biting one and then another. I realized what was happening, and that Jasper wasn't in his right mind. I had to do something to stop him.

"Jasper, I love you," I said. He didn't hear me. He went on with his ravaging of my breasts. "Jasper!" I cried out. "Jasper! I need you! Jasper! Help me! It's Bella! I love you, Jasper! Help me!" He raised his head and looked at me. I took the opportunity to try to get through to him. "Jasper, will you kiss me? I need you, sweetheart." He still had a wild look in his eyes, but he was listening to me. "Jazz, it's Bella. I love you, and I want to kiss you." His eyes were looking everywhere. They still weren't Jasper's eyes, but they were closer. I took a chance and lifted my head, bringing my lips to his. I kissed him, softly, two, three times. Then I laid my head back down. "Jazz, are you there? I want to kiss you. I need you." He looked into my eyes, and I saw some recognition there. He leaned down and kissed me, and I kissed him back. Initially, the kiss was perfunctory, almost instinctual, but after a few minutes, I could feel him starting to change with the kiss. I started to feel his body change as the kiss changed. He started to relax his frame, and his hand that was on my breast began to caress rather than to grope it. He added his tongue to the kiss, and when he did, I pulled away. "Jasper, is that you?" I breathed.

He pulled away from me and said, "Of course it's me. Who else would it be, Bella?" Then he leaned back in and kissed me again, all of his passion encompassed within the kiss.

I broke the kiss again. "Jasper, you have to stop this. Please, Jasper, please." He pulled away from me and sat back on his knees. It was then that he realized that he had me held with my arms behind my back. He looked at my ripped shirt and the bite marks on my breasts, and I could hear his intake of breath. He immediately let go of my arms, and I pulled my right arm back around in front of me. I tried to move my left arm, but when it didn't move and instead I felt a sharp pain, I couldn't help crying out in pain.

"Oh my God! Bella, what have I done to you?" He leaned over to help me sit up. When my shoulder moved, I cried out in pain again. "Oh, Bella! How far did I take this? I didn't...."

"No, Jasper," I whispered. "You didn't rape me." The look of relief on his face was telling. I realized that he was really scared that he had finished what he had started. "What happened, Jasper?"

"I blacked out. It used to happen a lot when I was with Maria. When she would make me do something that I didn't want to do, I would just black out. I would come to later, and the deed would be done. I haven't blacked out in seventy years. Bella, I'm so sorry."

"I know. Can you help me with my arm? I can't move it."

"Maybe we should go get Edward. I don't want to do any more damage to it."

"He is going to be furious with you. I don't want you two to fight."

"I deserve it, Bella. What I almost did to you is beyond reprehensible. I need to leave. I can't be trusted to be around you."

"No, Jasper. Don't you dare. I can't live without you in my life, even if it is as my friend."

"You aren't scared to be with me?"

"No. You love me, and I love you. We won't let this happen again. From this point on, you have to be my friend, Jasper. You can't continue to tempt me at every turn. I belong with Edward, and you know that. I have finally realized it, too. We can't be together, Jazz. What we had is over, but I want to be your friend. I can't live without your friendship."

"Good, because I can't live without yours. I promise that I will try my best to stop tempting you. It isn't fair to either one of us, or to either one of them. Now, let's get you back to Edward so that he can fix your shoulder, and I can own up to what I did to you." He lifted me into his arms as gently as he could, being careful not to jar my injured shoulder.

"Jazz, do you even remember what you did to me?"

"No, but the evidence speaks pretty loudly for itself, doesn't it. I don't think that you bit yourself or dislocated your own shoulder." I remained quiet. He was right. That evidence did speak for itself, and if that was all that Edward ever found out, it would be fine with me. He didn't need to know anything else that happened between the two of us, not that much else happened. But the final kisses and caresses, those would forever be between Jazz and myself.

When we approached the house, Jasper must have called out for Edward in his mind because he was waiting for us on the porch with a t-shirt for me. He took one look at me in Jasper's arms and fury crossed his face. "Take care of Bella, first, please," Jasper said. "I think that her left shoulder is dislocated." He sat me down gently on the steps leading onto the porch. Alice stepped outside at that time.

"What happened?" she asked.

"Ask your husband," Edward growled.

"Not now," I said, grimacing in pain as Edward started feeling around my shoulder. Alice walked over to Jasper who was standing off to the side of the porch, his head down.

Edward took my shoulder in his hands. "This is going to hurt, love. Jasper, I'm going to need your help. Lie back, love." I laid back onto the porch. "Jasper, hold her still. Don't let me move her." Jasper moved to my right side. He wrapped his arms around my body, holding me still. Edward took my left arm in his hands. He pulled it away from my body at an angle of about thirty degrees. I took a deep breath to extinguish the cry that was trying to escape. "Okay, love. I'm going to put it back in place now. Just hang in there." He started pulling on my arm, trying to pull my hand all the way to my toes. At least that was what it felt like. I couldn't believe how much it hurt. I had seen Alice pull Edward's arm off before, and it didn't seem to hurt him this much. I couldn't understand why this hurt so badly. Then I felt the bone slip into place. The pain immediately went away. I let the deep breath go, and my body relaxed. Jasper let go of me, and he stood back up. Edward took the shirt that he'd brought outside and put it on me, covering me up.

"Now, Jasper, would you like to explain to me how exactly Bella got hurt and naked from the waist up?" Edward asked, a sharp edge to his voice.

Jasper took one look at me, then he straightened up and said, "I attacked her."

Edward made a move towards him, and I stood up, moving between them. "No, it wasn't like that. He doesn't even remember doing it, Edward. He blacked out."

"Obviously he wasn't too out of it to hurt you like he did. The shoulder wasn't your only injury, Bella."

"I know that. I was there, Edward. But it didn't happen the way that you think that it did."

"Then why don't you tell me exactly what happened," Edward said with clenched teeth to match his clenched fists.

"Bella, don't. I'm not worth it. It doesn't matter how it happened. What matters is that I attacked you. I held you down and forced myself on you," Jasper said. "I hurt you."

Edward was around me before I knew what was happening. He hit Jasper again and again. I looked on in shock as the two men that I loved fought, well, Edward fought, and Jasper just took every punch that Edward threw. I threw myself between them. "Stop this! I mean it! Stop it now!" I yelled, and I pushed Edward off of Jasper. "Edward, he didn't know what he was doing. He wasn't in his right mind."

"He admits to trying to rape you, and you defend him. Bella, this has gone far enough. You have to choose. It's either him or me. It can't be both of us."

"Edward, I have already chosen, and Jasper knows that I have chosen you. That has never been in question. From the moment that I followed him into the woods, he knew that I had chosen you."

"Then please explain to me why you are defending him. He tried to rape you, and you are defending him."

"No, Edward. He did not try to rape me. The Jasper that we know did not try to rape me. The Jasper that is standing in front of us now did not hurt me. That is what I've been trying to tell you. It wasn't him. It was some wild person who had taken over his body. I've never seen anything like it before. His eyes were crazy. They were darting all over the place. They never settled on anything for more than a split second. He was pacing like he didn't know where he was. He was talking to himself, not making any sense. It was my fault. I stepped in his way. I interrupted whatever was going on, and what I saw in his eyes when he looked at me wasn't Jasper. When he grabbed me, he didn't know who I was. When he...did those things to me, he didn't know who I was. It took all that I had inside of me to bring him back. I did everything that I could do to bring him back. I talked to him, calling his name, begging for him to help me. Slowly, the wildness in his eyes seemed to fade and recognition set in. When he realized that he was holding me down, he immediately let go of me and helped me up. Then he realized what he had done and the shame set in. He is the one who wanted to come back here and face you for what happened. He never even thought about not taking the blame for it."

"How far did he get?" Edward asked me quietly.

"Only as far as you could see. Nothing else happened that we've tried to cover up. He's ready to take the blame for everything that he did, even though he wasn't even aware that he was doing it. Jasper and I are over, Edward. We are going to be friends, but that is all. You are the only man in my life, now and forever. Jasper understands that, and I understand that. Now, the only one left to understand it is you."

"Jasper, I am taking Bella's word that you didn't know what you were doing when you did these things to her, but I'm through fooling around with you. I want you to know that if you ever touch her in an inappropriate way again, I will see you burn. There will not be time for explanations or excuses. Bella is my wife. If you cannot respect that, then leave us in peace, because there will not be another chance, or another slip-up. Mark my words as a man. You touch her again, and you will burn." Edward turned then, and taking my hand, we walked inside and into our room.

I walked into the middle of our room and stopped as Edward shut the door. He turned and walked up behind me, placing his arms around my waist. I turned to face him and laid my head onto his chest, my arms enclosing his waist in turn. He rested his chin on top of my head, and we stood there, silent, just holding each other. When the sun's first rays began to breach the horizon, he lifted my chin and, ever so gently, he kissed me. Then, taking my hand, he led me into the bathroom and started the shower. He undressed me, being careful not to harm my shoulder. Then he undressed, and we stepped into the shower. He washed my hair, taking time to massage my scalp. Then he washed my body. When he got to my breasts, he traced the bite marks with his finger. They were still sore from the venom, but the ease of his touch somehow eased the pain. I turned so that my back was to him and leaned into his chest. He held me close to him and finished washing my body. Then, he quickly washed himself. When we got out of the shower, he dried me off first, paying particular attention to my shoulder and my breasts, then he dried himself. He went into our closet, and chose a loose blouse that buttoned in the front. When he started to put it on me, I asked him about a bra. He told me that it would cause my breasts to hurt, and that he wasn't going to let me wear one today. He buttoned the blouse and then helped me with some jeans.

We went downstairs and grabbed our books as we hadn't done any homework the night before. We made quick work of the assignments as we heard Alice and Jasper getting ready. I grabbed the new Chemistry books and added them to our bookbags. We would leave the school's copies in our lockers. Edward called upstairs to tell Alice and Jasper that we were going to leave a little early in order to stop by the drugstore and get a sling for my arm. He didn't want me using it during P.E. for the next two days. While it would already be healed if it were dismembered, the fact that it was dislocated meant that the ligaments that were injured when it came out of joint healed before it was put back in place, thus when it was put back in place, the ligaments were pinched and pushed and it would take time for them to reposition themselves.

They came downstairs ten minutes early, and though they were more quiet than usual, there was no overt hostility. I made sure that I had given them the new chemistry books and that I had the bag for Teresa, and we got into the car. We stopped at the pharmacy and Edward bought a sling which he put onto my left arm. Then we drove to school.

We arrived several minutes early, so we had ample time to stop by our lockers and drop off the school's copy of our chemistry books. Then we made our way to Mrs. Summer's class. I walked to Teresa's desk instead of sitting at my own. She was involved in a conversation with the girl who was sitting in front of her.

"Hi, Teresa. I'm sorry to interrupt, but can you come with me for a second? I need to ask you a favor," I said as I approached her desk.

She looked shocked that I'd spoken to her, but she excused herself from the conversation and followed me into the hallway. I walked into the restroom with her and, after making sure that we were alone, I took the pharmacy bag out of my bookbag. "The pills are in here. You need to take one now and the second one in twelve hours. I also got you some condoms, just in case you and Christopher decide to continue with your physical relationship."

"Oh, Bella! I don't know how to thank you! You are just the best friend that a girl could have." She took one of the pills out of the package and taking a handful of water from the sink, she swallowed it. "I don't know if we will be needing the, um, other things that you bought, but thanks for the thought." She wrapped the bag up tight so that the contents couldn't be seen. "I guess you know that you met my mom yesterday."

"Yes. She isn't one of my biggest fans. I think that Edward and I kind of scared her off."

"She did mention that you and your boyfriend were obviously sexually active and that I didn't need to be friends with you. She thought that you would be a bad influence on me. I told her that you and your boyfriend were actually married, and she wanted to know how old your child was. I told her that you weren't pregnant when you got married, but she didn't believe me. By the way, what happened to your arm?"

"It's nothing. I fell. The sling is just precautionary. We'd better get back to class. We don't want to be sliding into our desks when the bell rings. Don't forget to set you a timer for twelve hours."

We walked back into the class, and I watched Teresa slide the bag of condoms into her bookbag. I took out my new chemistry book and got out a pen and my orange highlighter. I turned to the chapter that we were studying and started reading what we would be going over today. I started highlighting the dark printed words and their definitions. I made some notes on the margins in pen. I could feel the class starting to look at what I was doing. Then I heard other highlighters start to mark in books coming from the direction of Jasper's desk. I quickly turned around to see him marking in his book as well. Then I looked at Alice who was starting to write in hers in pen. Finally, I looked at Edward who was just shaking his head. In vampire volume I asked, "For the last time, are you in or out?"

"I still think that this is stupid and childish. I don't know why we're begging for trouble," Edward said.

"Fine, then you're out. Don't do it. Be the mature one of us."

The bell rang signaling the beginning of first period. Mrs. Summer stood and walked to the dry erase board. She picked up her pen and started to lecture where she left off the day before. Alice, Jasper, and I highlighted and wrote away, marking up our books like a pre-schooler given a color and a coloring book. Every once in awhile I would take a note or two just to keep my notebook going. After all, we would be getting a notebook grade tomorrow. When she still hadn't noticed that we were marking in our books by halfway through class time, I saw a chance to bring her attention to it. I raised my hand to ask a question about a chart in the book. When she answered the question, she turned around to face us instead of the dry erase board. I just happened to choose that time to highlight part of the chart and the accompanying diagram in the book.

You could hear a pin drop. I went further and picked up my pen and made a note beside the chart. Mrs. Summer had started breathing deeply. You could actually see her nostrils starting to flare. She took her time and, with great purpose, recapped the dry erase marker. Then she put it down onto the tray with a loud clap. She fisted her hands and walked to my desk. I was in the process of highlighting another line when she grabbed the highlighter out of my hand and threw it at the door of the classroom.

"Excuse me, Mrs. Summer, but what exactly do you think that you are doing? That was my personal property," I said, looking her straight in the eye.

"How dare you?!" she squeaked, her voice high pitched and full of menace. "I thoroughly explained to you that you are not to mark in those textbooks. What are you, girl, and imbecile?" She grabbed the book off of my desk, then she walked to Alice's desk. She took one look at the book and reached to pick hers up as well.

"Nope. Mine," Alice said as she moved the book away from Mrs. Summer's grasp.

"These books belong to the school, girl. They are loaned to you for your studies. You are not to mark in the books," Mrs. Summer's voice was starting to rise. The students around us were staring at us with looks of shock on their faces. Mrs. Summer walked to the front of the class. "You, boy, bring me your book," she said, pointing to Jasper. He capped his pen, and slowly got out of his desk. He grinned at the people who were staring at him as he walked to the front of the room. He took a detour and picked up my highlighter which he tossed to me before he handed his book to Mrs. Summer. She flipped through only a few pages before her face got even more red. She was breathing fast and hard. Then she looked at Edward. "You, boy. Bring me your book." He stood and brought her his book. She flipped through several pages before she handed it back to him and told him to go sit back down. Then she looked at Alice, Jasper, and me. "Get up! You three will be punished. I will not stand for such blatant disregard of the rules, not to mention destruction of school property."

I stood up, and so did Alice. We walked to the front of the classroom. "I'm afraid that you don't know what you're talking about, Mrs. Summer," I said. I heard a collective gasp from the class.

"Excuse me! Why you insolent little girl! I'll have you suspended for this!" Mrs. Summer said.

"For what? Writing in my own book? I don't think that it is against the rules for me to deface my own property."

"I've already told you that these books are the property of the school system. They are only on loan to you while you are taking this class. As Juniors in high school, you should be at least educated enough to understand that! However, Alaska may not have taught you simple things such as textbooks being on loan. I'll be amazed if any one of you can pass this class! You are such losers, and you obviously have no common sense! You are just little peons in the grand scheme of things!"

"Mrs. Summer! That is enough! Why are you speaking that way to students? And in front of other students? I think that you need to step outside for a moment and gather yourself," Mr. Conner said. The students in the room started looking around at each other with grins on their faces.

"But Mr. Conner, these _children_ have marked all in their textbooks. I told them their first day that they weren't to mark in the books, and today, they were writing all in the books. Just look!" She held out our books to Mr. Conner who flipped through the pages.

"Whose book is this?" Mr. Conner asked.

"Mine," I answered.

"What gave you the right to mark in this book?"

"I bought it; I can write in it if I want to."

"What do you mean you bought it? Taxpayers bought it."

"No, I bought it. Thirty-two dollars and ninety-two cents at Barnes and Noble dot com plus fourteen dollars and seventy cents for overnight shipping. It's my book. May I have it back, please?"

"If this is your book, where is your school issued textbook?"

"In my locker. Would you like it back?"

"I would like to see it. And I'm to assume that these belong to you two as well?" He motioned to Alice and Jasper who nodded in reply. "I'd like to see your school issued textbooks, too, please." We left the classroom and walked to our lockers. When we returned with three covered textbooks and handed them to Mr. Conner, the whole class broke into applause. "Quiet down, class. That isn't necessary." Mrs. Summer's face was even more red than before, if that was possible. She knew that she'd been gotten. What's worse, the principal had caught her berating us in front of the class. "Did you try to explain to Mrs. Summer that these were your textbooks?"

"Yes, sir, I did. She jerked my highlighter out of my hand and threw it at the door," I said. "Then she told me that I was an imbecile and that I wasn't smart enough to know any better. I find that in science classes, I seem to grasp the information better if I use the textbook and make marginal notes. It hasn't failed me so far, and as long as I can afford to buy my own copies of the textbooks, I tend to do so in the classes that I want to use the book in. My ACT and SAT scores should support that I am intelligent enough, in fact, to do well in her class."

"Yes, Ms. Cullen, I have reviewed your records, and the exam scores do support your claims. However, I do think that your husband's scores are just a little bit higher than yours."

"Well, he is the smartest one of all of us. I do believe that his latest ACT was a 36 and his latest SAT composite was a 1590. He's going to be hard to beat."

"Yes, he does top our students. The rest of you three are within two points on your ACT's and within 50 points on your SAT's though. That makes the four of you the highest scorers that this school has ever had in it's history, and that's with all of you taking the exams as sophomores. I don't think that you'll have any problems with any of the classes that we have here. Take your seats, please. Class, you are through in this period for the morning. I do believe that Mrs. Summer has exams on every other Friday, and that would indicate that tomorrow is an exam Friday, so be prepared. I expect that you will keep the volume down to a dull roar. Mrs. Summer, please accompany me to the office."

"But, my class..."

"Will keep themselves entertained until the bell rings. We have some talking to do concerning your handling of this issue." He opened the door to the hallway and motioned for her to exit in front of him. She left the room, and he closed the door.

When she was down the hallway, I stood up and walked over to Alice's desk and said, "Yes!" and gave her a high five. Then I went to Jasper's desk and repeated the high five. "It worked! Shows her for being such a tight ass." The class broke out in laughter.

"You mean that you three planned that! You intended to get her in trouble?" Teresa asked me. I nodded. "You are wicked, but I love it! She has been terrorizing students for the past ten years. Everyone dreads having to take her class. You guys are here for three days, and not only do you fit right in, but you torment the tormentor! You three are awesome!" The rest of the class called out their agreement.

Somewhere from the back of the room, a girl asked, "Did you really score a 1590 on your SAT's Edward?" If he could have blushed, he would have. Instead, he just nodded.

"You didn't need to have shared that with the class, Bella," he said, coming over to stand by me and putting his arms around my waist and giving me a light kiss on the neck.

"I'm proud of you, sweetheart," I said, turning to give him a kiss on the lips, a chaste kiss, nothing too erotic, yet the class still oohed and ahhed. "Can it, you guys. You don't want to get a teacher in here, do you?"

"Are you two really married?" a voice came from somewhere in the room.

"Yes, we are," Edward said. "And it is wonderful. I highly recommend marriage."

The bell rang before anyone else had any time to ask us any more questions. We made our way to our other morning classes. The rumors concerning our activities with Mrs. Summer this morning spread like wildfire throughout the entire high school. Even the teachers were gossiping about what had happened. By lunch, we were the center of attention. When we sat at our table, we were bombarded by students dropping by to congratulate us on our victory. Edward started to get frustrated with all of the attention. He told us that practically every mind in the school was thinking about how they could prank Mrs. Summer. We had started something that was going to quickly get out of hand. The problem was that we had no way of stopping it. While it was possible that Edward had been right all along - it may have been the wrong thing to do after all - I would never admit it to him.

While I was distracted during most of lunch by the influx of students around our table, I couldn't help to notice that Teresa had her head down at her table. As quickly as I could, I excused myself and made my way to her table. I looked at Christopher when I walked up to the table and said, "Hi, I'm Bella. I don't know if Teresa told you, but we spoke yesterday. Is it okay if I join you?"

"Yes, she told me," he said, blushing. "Please, have a seat. I wanted to thank you for your help. I know that your talk helped her yesterday, and what you did for her today went far beyond the boundaries of a new friend."

"It was nothing. I was happy to help. I just wanted to check on her, though. She doesn't look like she feels very good."

"I'm okay, just a little nauseated," Teresa said, raising her head from the table. She looked absolutely green.

"I've tried to talk her into going home, but she is being stubborn. She says that it is just a side effect of the medicine and that she has to tolerate it. I tried to tell her that she should go home and go to bed. She will probably feel even worse when she takes the second pill. I feel so bad for putting her in this position."

"No, we put me in this position, not you, and I have to live with it."

"Teresa, maybe you shouldn't take the second pill. If you are feeling this bad after the first one, I can't imagine how badly you will feel after the second one," I said.

"I have to. If there is anything that I can do to reduce the risk of getting pregnant, I have to do it. I was on the most fertile part of my cycle when we...well, you know."

"Okay, just be careful. Don't make yourself miserable. Go home and get into bed," I said.

"Okay, you've both talked me into it. I'll go home. I really don't feel like I could pay attention in class anyway."

"Before you go, do you happen to have my notes from chemistry? I don't think that Mrs. Summer is going to be too forgiving if my notebook isn't in order tomorrow morning," I asked Teresa.

"Oh, yes! They're right here. Let me get them for you. I'm so sorry that I forgot them this morning. I got a little distracted," she said, reaching into her bookbag and pulling out my notes. "Thank you for letting me copy them. They were wonderful. You take great notes."

"Thank you. Now, go to the office and call your mom to come and get you. Go home and rest," I told her.

"Thanks again, Bella, for everything that you have done for us," Christopher said to me. I just waved my hand at him and walked back to our table and put my notes into my chemistry notebook.

The others had listened into our conversation and told me that I was getting too close to Teresa and Christopher. I asked them if they had ever tried to have human friends at any of their other schools, and they told me that they had, once. I asked them if something had happened to turn them off from having human friends, and they told me that it was very nice until an accident made them leave suddenly, abandoning their friend and hurting her very much. I asked them if that was why they didn't want me to make human friends, and they just laughed at me. When I asked them why they were laughing at me, Edward took me into his arms and told me that I was that human friend, and he felt as if it all worked out in the end. I promised them all that when we got home, they would all suffer for leading me on that way. I didn't know what I would do to them, but I would come up with something when they least expected it.

The rest of the school day progressed slowly. Certain teachers seemed to almost respect us for what we had done while others seemed to want to spank us for disrespecting Mrs. Summer. Jasper had it the worst. The place was a cornucopia of emotions, and he felt each and every one of them. By the time that we made it to gym, he seemed to be exhausted. We were playing softball this afternoon, and he and Edward were on the same team while Alice and I were on the opposing team. Alice and I hung back to the end of the line, hoping that we wouldn't get up to bat. Edward was playing first base, and Jasper was in the outfield. We managed to skip batting for several innings, but the coach eventually noticed what we were doing and insisted that we bat. I pointed to my sling, but he said that without a doctor's note, I would have to participate. Alice insisted that I bat first. I stood at the plate, and several of the boys in the outfield shouted to "bring it in" because I was a girl and I was hurt. Jasper, looking me in the eyes, backed up. Playing by the Cullen's baseball rules, I took the first pitch which happened to be high and outside. I hit it over Jazz's head, and because he couldn't jump like he normally would, I wasn't automatically out like I normally would have been. He had to chase the ball at human speed, but I had to run at human speed as well. He did cheat, however. He threw the ball way too fast for human speed. Edward caught it just as I was sliding into first base. Coach called me safe saying that ties go to the runner. I jumped up and quickly gave Edward a hug before I took my lead off of first base knowing that Alice would be batting next. Again, the boys in the outfield called for everyone to "bring it in," and again Jasper backed up. Alice, like a true Cullen, took her first pitch and hit the ball to the opposite side of the field from Jasper. He amazingly managed to sprint to the ball before anyone else could get to it, and he threw it all the way to Edward, again way too fast for humans to be throwing it. Edward caught it, but Alice was easily safe, and I had advanced to third base. It didn't matter, Edward easily got out the next batters, and we weren't able to score. Their team easily won the game. After the game was over, Coach came up to us and asked Edward and Jasper if they were interested in joining the varsity baseball team. They told him that they weren't. Then he turned to Alice and me and asked if we were interested in joining the varsity softball team. We told him that we weren't. He just shook his head and walked away. When he was gone, I asked them why we couldn't join the teams, and Alice looked at me and said that they played many of their games during the day. We couldn't guarantee that we would always be out of the sun. I felt so stupid. Edward just put his arm around my shoulders and told me that I'd get used to thinking that way. It just took time.

We hurried back to the locker rooms to change before heading for home. I had to be careful not to let the humans see my breasts because of the bites which were still very evident. Several of the girls came up to us and congratulated us on our practical joke on Mrs. Summer. They said that the whole school had heard what we'd done and that we were celebrities. They also wanted to know where we learned to hit the ball like that. We told them that we'd been playing with the guys since we were toddlers. We just didn't like to play any more because it reminded us of our parents. Then we walked outside and waited for the guys who had been held up in their locker room. When they finally came out, we were rushed by some guys who had letterman jackets for baseball. They wanted to know where we learned to play ball. We told them the same thing, that we'd learned to play right beside the guys as toddlers. We'd been playing ever since. We told them that we needed to go home, and when we went to our lockers to get our books, they followed us. They even followed us to our car, trying to get Edward and Jasper to join the baseball team. They even tried to get us to join the girl's softball team.

"We're sorry, but we're really not interested; none of us are," Edward said as he got into the car. We also got in. He pulled out of the parking lot, just leaving them standing there. On the way home, he said that he'd never seen so many people who were so determined to get what they wanted. We all laughed a little and wondered what motivated them to be so persistent.

When we arrived at home, there was a message waiting on us from Mr. Samuels. The purchase agreement for the building for Charlie had come through. We needed to go by his office to sign the papers, and Charlie could move in whenever he wanted to. Edward and I got back into the car and drove to his office. As soon as we walked into the office, the receptionist buzzed Mr. Samuels and informed him of our presence. She led us into a conference room and told us that Mr. Samuels would be with us momentarily. Before the door had closed good, he entered the room from another door with some papers in his hand. He sat down next to Edward and spread the papers out in front of him. Edward looked over them and signed in the appropriate places. He took out his cell phone and called a number. He spoke with the gentleman who answered the phone in a language that I couldn't identify. When he hung up the phone, he spoke to Mr. Samuels. He gave him a bank account number as well as an access number. He told him that he had transferred the appropriate amount of money into the account, and it would be available in one hour for transfer to the previous owners. Then he stood and shook Mr. Samuel's hand. He asked him what the bill for his services came to, and when Mr. Samuels presented him with an invoice, he paid it in cash. Mr. Samuels immediately gave him a receipt for the money. We thanked him and returned home with the keys for the townhouse. Edward dropped me off at Charlie's house, and I knocked on his door. When he answered it, I held out the key in front of him. His face broke into the nicest grin that I'd seen in a long time.

"Thank you, Bella. You and Edward are so good to me. I'm so glad that you came back into my life. I was so lost when I thought that you were gone. Now, I'm the happiest father in the world. I know with all certainty that I'll never have to bury my daughter. That was the worst day in my life, Bella, and now I know that I'll never have to face that day again. Coming back into my life is the best gift that you and Edward could have ever given me." He took me into his arms and tried to squeeze me tight. I hugged him back.

"I'm glad that you're back in my life, too, Dad. I love you. Do you need help moving any of your equipment to your place?"

"No, Bella. I think that I want to do that myself. Thanks for asking." I gave him another hug and left him for the house.

When I reached the house, I came up on the tail end of a conversation between Edward and Alice. "Edward, I know that you are frustrated with the whole situation. I am, too. But you were pretty hard on Jasper yesterday. That threat that you made was out of line. I didn't say anything in front of him or Bella, but I'm saying something to you now. You need to back off of him. He didn't know what he was doing, even Bella told you that. You can't sentence someone for something that they're not responsible for."

"Alice, he hurt Bella. I don't know if you have seen what has been going on in his mind or if you're just ignoring what is going on with him, but he has still been lusting after Bella. He has been picturing her when he is with you. He has been jacking off thinking of her. He has basically been propositioning her. Don't stand there and tell me that he didn't know what he was doing. He may have not known at that one instance, but he has known every other time. I have every right to tell him what will happen if he touches her again. He's lucky that I haven't called him on his thoughts before now."

"He's stronger than you. You'll end up getting hurt, Edward. Don't fight him."

"If he comes near Bella again, I'll take that chance."

I came through the door at that time. "Edward, I don't want you two to fight. I don't want you to get hurt. There is nothing going on between Jasper and me. I swear it. I know that you can't read my thoughts, but please, trust me, I love you, and I need you, only you." I walked into his arms and laid my head onto his chest. Alice walked away, shaking her head. "Come hunt with me?" He nodded and we left the house into the woods. We enjoyed running together, talking to each other about Charlie and his new business and how happy he seemed to be. We talked about Teresa and Christopher and their situation. I asked him if he thought that I was getting to close to Teresa, and though he hesitated before he answered, he said that he thought that our friendship was okay. I asked him if he would mind double dating with them tomorrow night. He hesitated again, and when he looked at my face, full of anticipation, he sighed and told me okay. I asked him why he was against making human friends when we didn't have problems with blood lust, and he said that the closer that we got to humans, the higher the risk of them growing suspicious of us. When they grow suspicious, we have to leave. I didn't want that to happen, so I had to be very careful. I thought of our past conversations and couldn't think of anything that I'd ever said or done that would give us away.

After we'd fed and returned to the house, I looked up Teresa's phone number. I called the number, and her father answered the phone. "Hi, this is Bella. I'm calling to find out if Teresa is feeling better. May I speak with her, please?"

"Bella, I'm afraid that I don't know you. Are you new in town?" Mr. Goodman asked.

"Yes, Sir. We just moved here two weeks ago. Teresa befriended me during my first few days of school. We've become fast friends."

"Well, she's still not feeling well. She's lying on the couch. Hold on, and I'll bring the phone to her."

"Thank you," I said, and soon Teresa was on the phone.

"Hello?"

"Hi, Teresa, this is Bella. I was calling to see how you are feeling."

"I'm still really nauseated. I'm keeping sips down, but I'm not able to eat anything."

"Have you taken the second pill?"

"Yes, I did. I've been able to study for the chemistry test. I hope that I'll be better by tomorrow and be able to go to school."

"I hope so, too. Would you and Christopher like to go to a movie with Edward and me tomorrow night? It might make you feel a little more comfortable being with Christopher if the two of you are with someone else. If you decide that you want to be alone, we can always disappear."

"That sounds great! If I'm feeling up to it, I'm sure that he would agree. I'll ask him tomorrow morning." She paused for a second, and I could hear her mother's voice in the background asking her who she was talking to. She told her that she was talking to a friend who had asked Christopher and her to go out with her tomorrow night. Her mother didn't press her any further for which I was grateful. "I'm going to let you go now. I'll see you in the morning. Thanks for calling to check up on me and for inviting us out."

"No problem at all. Bye Teresa." I hoped that tomorrow would be better than the past two days.


	33. Chapter 33

**Disclaimer: Stephenie Meyer owns it all.**

**Chapter 33 - Contamination**

We arrived at school in plenty of time to put our books in our lockers and be in our seats before the first bell rang. Mrs. Summer was standing beside her desk as we entered the room. Nobody in the room was moving a muscle. Everyone had looks of terror on their faces. As I entered the room, I first looked at Mrs. Summer who tried to stare me down. I won. She blinked first. The fact that I was a vampire who didn't have to blink didn't have anything to do with my winning. I'm sure of it. I would have won anyway. After she blinked, I turned to the class and said, "Good morning, everyone. Are you ready to have fun today? We are."

Mrs. Summer's face turned red, but she didn't say anything. I walked to Teresa's desk and asked her if she was feeling any better. She told me that she was, and I told her that I was happy to hear it. I then walked to my seat and took out my pen. Mrs. Summer went to her desk and picked up a stack of papers. As soon as the first bell rang, she walked to the door and shut and locked it. Then she began walking up and down the rows, placing the tests on each desk, upside down. Nobody looked at the tests until they were all passed out. As soon as she had passed all of them out, she walked to the front of the room and said, "You may turn your tests over and begin. You have forty minutes." She turned on a timer on her desk. Then she sat down. Her eyes never left the class, going from one student to another.

I turned over the test and read the first question. Compare and contrast ionic, covalent, and hydrogen bonding. It seemed to be a little bit complex for a junior level chemistry course, but I answered the question completely, using the space supplied and continuing it on the back of the paper. I went to the second question. Compare and contrast the terms molecule, ion, compound, and solution. Again, I answered the question completely, writing at vampire speed, feeling that I would need the time to finish the test if all of the questions were going to be this complex. In vampire volume, I asked Edward what he thought of the test. He said that he was almost through. I asked him how he could be almost through, and he said that it was simple matching. I almost made a mistake and spoke out loud. Alice spoke for me, though, and said that hers was all discussion. Jasper agreed, and I said that mine was as well. I finished the test, working at vampire speed with five minutes left before the timer went off.

We all passed up the tests like we passed up the homework. Mrs. Summer smirked at me when she took up the tests. I just smiled at her. When we got into the hallway, we told Edward the questions that were on our tests. He couldn't believe it. Not only were the questions college level, there was entirely too much on the test to be completed in forty minutes. It was obvious that she was trying to get even with us. We would have to take this situation to the principal. We went to our usual morning classes, and when it was time for lunch, we went to the office instead.

Mrs. Calcote was working the front desk. She asked us what we needed, and when we told her that we needed to see Mr. Conner, she told us to go right back, so we walked back to his office and knocked on his door. He told us to come in, and we walked in.

"Hi. How may I help you this afternoon? Shouldn't you be at lunch?"

"Yes, sir. But, I'm afraid that we may need your help. Mrs. Summer has singled out Alice, Jasper, and myself and tried to take some sort of misplaced revenge on us."

"What do you mean? What happened?"

"We were given a different test from the rest of the class this morning."

"How do you know that?"

"Well, the three of us were given twenty relatively complicated discussion questions to answer in forty minutes. Edward and the rest of the class were given a thirty question matching test."

"You aren't kidding are you?"

"No sir, unfortunately, I'm not."

"Okay, I want to see the exams when she passes them back out to you. She has always let the students keep the tests to study for the end of term exams. As a matter of fact, her exams have always been matching tests. I have never known her to give an essay question. She always complains about students' writing and doesn't want to read it."

"Okay. Will do. Thank you."

We left his office and went to the cafeteria. We sat at our table, and Jasper's cell vibrated. He looked at the message. It was from Jenks. He had sent Charlie's license next day mail yesterday, so we should be receiving it in today's mail. I was so excited that Charlie would finally be able to begin his new business. I just hoped that he would find some clients. That was the one thing that we couldn't help him with.

The rest of the day went without incident. We didn't run into our baseball stalkers today, and we made it home after our detour by the post office in good time. We all took pleasure in presenting Charlie with his official New York Private Investigator's License. The smile on his face made him glow. He told us that he already had his first client. She had stopped by his office last evening while he was setting up his equipment. We tried to get him to tell us about her, but he told us that the information was privileged, and he couldn't tell us about it. We didn't press him, knowing that Edward could read his mind, and we could get the scoop when we got home. I gave him a big hug and congratulated him again, then we left for home.

Edward and I went hunting just as a precaution before we went to meet Teresa and Christopher for our "double date." After we got back from hunting, I noticed that Alice had laid out a blouse and skirt for me to wear tonight. I quickly changed, and we met them outside of the theater. As we approached them, Teresa's smile expanded and she ran to hug me. She walked with us back to Christopher who looked a little uncomfortable. As we approached him, she left us and went to his side, taking his hand in hers. I took the initiative and said, "Teresa, Christopher, let me introduce you to my husband, Edward. Edward, this is Teresa Goodman and Christopher...I'm sorry, Christopher. I don't know your last name."

"Broughton, Christopher Broughton." He extended his hand to Edward who shook it. "Nice to meet you, Edward. Bella has been so kind and generous to Teresa. I don't know what we would have done without her."

"Bella is some woman, that's for sure. I'm a lucky man," Edward answered. "Are you two ready to get out of this cold?"

"Oh, yes," Teresa said.

We walked up to the window, and Edward and Christopher bought the tickets. We followed them inside, and when they got in line for refreshments, we told them that we'd just eaten, and we'd go save some seats. We found four seats in the back of the theater, and before long, they joined us. Teresa sat beside me, and the guys sat on our outsides. The movie was a teenaged comedy, and while it had it's moments, Edward and I found it pretty superficial. Teresa and Christopher seemed to enjoy it, however, and when we stood to leave, they had large smiles on their faces.

As we walked into the lobby, Teresa seemed to get nervous. We walked out to the cars, and Christopher leaned over to kiss Teresa. She kissed him back, but she was stiff and unnatural. He broke the kiss and said, "Why don't we go sit by the lake. My family has some property that is on the lake, and it has one of the most remarkable views at night." Teresa almost begged me with her eyes to go.

"That sounds great to me. How about you, Edward? Please," I begged.

"Lead the way. My car won't get scratched, will it?" he asked.

"No, the way is clear. There is a paved road to a dock, but the area is really secluded," Christopher said.

"We'll be right behind you," Edward said, and we got into the car. We pulled into the road behind Christopher and Teresa. "She is really nervous, isn't she?"

"Yes. She is scared to death. She is afraid that her father will find out that they've been together. I think that she wants to continue their physical relationship, but she is scared."

"He definitely wants to continue their physical relationship. He only invited us to go along with them because he knew that she'd insist that he take her home if he didn't invite us along. He still wants to make love with her tonight."

"What does she want?"

"She doesn't know. She wants to one second, then she doesn't want to."

"Did she bring the condoms?"

"No. She thought that if she left them at home that she wouldn't make love with him. When she left home, she was determined that she didn't want to do it again. She didn't want to disappoint her father like that, but now that she is with Christopher, her hormones have kicked in, and she is wavering."

"It looks like we're here."

"Just what is our purpose here?"

"I think that we're just supposed to be here to be supportive. Personally, I want to take a walk along that beautiful lake, in the moonlight, and let nature take its course."

"That sounds perfect to me. Luckily, the moon is behind just enough clouds to ensure that we won't sparkle." He opened his door and climbed out of the car. He walked around and opened my door. He took my hand and helped me out of the car. We walked hand in hand down to the lake front. Once there, we turned to each other and kissed. Edward ran his left hand through my hair while his right hand wrapped around my back, pulling me closer to him. I wrapped both of my arms around his neck. His tongue sought entrance into my mouth which gladly granted him admittance. I allowed him to deepen the kiss as I melted into him, my form and his form melding to become one shape in the moonlight.

As I lost myself in our kiss, I was brought back to the present momentarily by the sound of Teresa's voice. "I do love you, Christopher. You know that I do. That's never been an issue before. Now, all of a sudden, if I don't undress for you, I don't love you?"

"I didn't say that, Teresa. I said that we've already done this, and I don't see why it is a problem for you to do it again."

"We agreed that we'd wait until we were married, and just because we made one mistake doesn't mean that we have to repeat that mistake."

"Are you saying that our making love was a mistake? Teresa, our making love was beautiful. It was wonderful. It was an expression of our love for one another. It was the joining of our bodies in the way that only lovers can join."

"It was teenaged hormones and sex, Christopher. We weren't making love. There wasn't any passion in what we were doing. It was all lust and fornication, and I'm sorry that it happened. I'm embarrassed that I lost control of my emotions. I'm shattered that I allowed myself to break my vow of chastity. I don't intend to have a sexual relationship with anyone until I'm married. I hope that you can understand, Christopher. I do love you, but I won't have sex with you until we are married."

"Teresa, I can't believe that you feel that way. I thought that what we had was wonderful. I thought that we were making love. I thought that you loved me enough to make love with me."

"Christopher, where was the love? We had sex on the backseat of your car. We couldn't even take the time to protect me. It was basically a wham-bam-thank-you-mam job. You didn't take time to see that I even ...well,..._cam_e_. _And when you were done, we just got dressed, and you took me home like I'd satisfied your itch, and you were through with me. Please explain to me exactly where the making love was in that scenario."

Christopher was silent for several minutes. Then he spoke in a hushed voice. "This is it, then? We're breaking up?"

"If you're basing a further relationship on the condition of sex, then, I guess we are."

"No, Teresa! I would never do that! I would like to be with you again, very much so, but I would never make it a condition of our relationship. I love you, Teresa. I always will, with or without making love to you. I'm so sorry that you feel used. I never meant, I mean, I thought that you felt the same way that I did. I'm sorry that I didn't see to your needs, too. I didn't know what I was doing, and I, I mean it was over so quickly. I'm sorry. I should have been better. I should have known what I was doing."

"Christopher, you shouldn't have known what to do any more than I should have known what to do. The problem wasn't that I didn't..., you know, the problem was that once you did, we were through. We didn't kiss any more; we didn't touch any more. You just left me and got dressed so that we could go. Then you took me home like nothing had happened."

"Theresa, I didn't want you to be late. We were pushing for time, and I didn't want you to have to answer any questions. I wasn't thinking that you needing time with me. I'm sorry."

We didn't hear anything else for several seconds, then we heard the distinct sounds of them kissing. We turned back to each other, and I wrapped my arms back around his neck. I lifted my lips to his again, and we picked up where we left off. My body sculpted itself to his, and his arms held me close to him. I wrapped my legs around his hips, bringing myself in position to rub against him, and I found that he was already at attention and ready for me to command his activities. He groaned into my mouth as my tongue explored his, tasting the venom that he was unconsciously dripping onto his tongue. My fingers explored his hair as he carefully lowered me to the ground on the lake's bank. He leaned over me, not putting any weight onto my body, and he looked surprised when I flipped him over to straddle his hips. I broke my lips away from his, kissing his jaw leading to his ear where I whispered, "Just lie there and enjoy. I love you." I unbuttoned his shirt and ran my tongue from his ear to his breast bone, then to his nipple which I took between my teeth. I nibbled on it until it peaked in my mouth, then I suckled it until I could hear Edward's groan and feel his erection throbbing between my legs. Then I repeated the same actions on the other nipple while I tweaked the first between my fingers. I could feel him thrusting his hips between my legs, trying to gain some friction to relieve his aching, swollen, manhood. His groans were growing louder, and his hands moved to my hips trying to get me to move against him to give him some needed relief. I raised my head and shook it while removing his hands. I gathered them together and held them with one hand while I used the other hand to unbuttoned his jeans. I slowly pulled down his zipper, and when I opened the front of the jeans, his erection sprung free, still within his boxers, but at attention, begging for my notice and further attention. I kissed him at his navel and followed that line of hair that tracked from there down into his boxers. When I reached his boxers, using my teeth, I lifted them up and over my object of interest. In doing so, my cheek managed to brush it in passing. Edward hissed and tried to break his hands from my grasp. Still being a newborn, his efforts were futile as I held them fast. Instead, I ran my cheek against him again, and this time, when I reached the tip, I moved my lips to barely brush over the very end, almost not touching him. He bucked his hips wanting more. I shook my head at him, and leaned down, running my tongue over his balls, first one then the other. He groaned, louder this time, and fought to release his hands from my grip. I took one of his balls into my mouth and sucked on it. He lifted his hips, and said, "Please, Bella, please. More." I lifted my head and smiled at him.

"What do you want, my Edward? What can I do to pleasure you?"

"Please, Bella! Don't make me say it! Please!"

"I love you, Edward," I said, and I leaned over and took him in my mouth. He groaned as if all of the tension of a lifetime had been released in a moment. I pulled back off, licking him from the base to the tip, running my tongue into the slit at the tip, then I took him back in until he hit the back of my throat. I continued the pattern, sometimes sucking on him on the way out. It wasn't long until he was thrusting into my mouth as I took him in. I let go of his hands, and they immediately went to my head to guide me in a rhythm that was good for him. Before I knew it, he was crying out in his passion, and then he cried out my name and was releasing into my throat. I took every drop of him, swallowing him down.

When he was finished, I covered him back up and re-fastened his jeans. Then I moved up to lie in his arms. He turned to kiss me. "Thank you, love. That was utterly amazing."

"My pleasure. I love you. I want to pleasure you. You have given me so much, it is the least that I can do for you." I continued to lie in his arms for several minutes, just enjoying his afterglow.

After a minute or two, Edward whispered to me in vampire volume, "I'm not totally sure, but I think that we may have had an audience for at least the end of our activities. Teresa is about to come to tell us that they are going to have to go home now to beat their curfew. I'm reading that she saw the end of what we were doing, and she is embarrassed to come and interrupt us now."

At that moment, Teresa came into view. "Hey, you guys, Christopher and I are going to have to leave pretty soon. We have to be home by midnight. I didn't want to leave without telling you that we were going."

I got up from Edward's arms and walked to her. "Do you have to leave this second?"

"No, not exactly this second," she said.

"Do you want to take a little walk?" I asked her.

"Sure," she said, taking my hand and leading me off to the side.

"How did the night go for you and Christopher?"

"Okay. We talked out some things. He accepted that I want to take things more slowly. We kissed, a lot, and I liked that. I also let him get to second base. I think that he put a hickey on my boob. I told him not to, but he said that nobody else had better be looking at me there, so he was going to mark me as his. I kind of like it."

"Just as long as you agree with it, then it should be okay. After all, he is right. Nobody else should be looking there. How do you feel about him looking there?"

"I love him. I want to do things with him, I just can't do everything with him. I really like the way that it makes me feel when he touches me. I get warm all over, and I get wet, there, you know?"

"Yeah, I know. I know exactly what you mean. That isn't always a comfortable feeling."

"Well, it's new for me. I've never felt it before. I mean, to think that someone affects me like that. I didn't think that I was capable of feeling that way about someone. I don't know what to do about it. I mean, I know that it means that I'm turned on, but I don't really know what comes next. Well, I know that making love comes next, but that just hurt. It doesn't feel good at all."

"Teresa, that was just the first time. It always hurts, but believe me, making love feels great! There isn't a better feeling in the world than making love with the man that you love when you do it right. The feelings that he can give you are mind blowing."

"I want to feel that, but I'm afraid that it will hurt again. I want to, but he doesn't know what he is doing, and I'm afraid that I won't feel anything but pain."

"Then let nature take its course. Give things time to progress one step at a time. Rome wasn't built in a day."

"Bella, can I ask you a question?"

"Sure. Anything."

"Do you...come when you and Edward do it?"

"Oh, yes! Multiple times. He is the greatest! I don't deserve him, but he loves me anyway. He is too good to me after all that I've done to him. He should have tossed me out on my ear months ago, but instead, he loves me and makes sure that I'm fully satisfied when we make love."

"Is that why you do what you just did with him? I'm sorry, I walked up on you two by accident."

"That's okay. We're used to living in a house with several sexually active couples. There was really no privacy. And, no, that's not why I did that. I gave him a blow job because I love him, and I want to pleasure him in every way possible. He likes it when I do that, so I do it. I don't mind; in fact, it turns me on, so when I get the chance, I do it."

"And you swallowed it?!"

"Yep,"

"It wasn't disgusting?"

"Nope. I don't think that anything about Edward is disgusting."

"What does it taste like?"

"Kinda salty, I guess. Not bad."

"I can't imagine doing that, much less swallowing it."

"Why not, Teresa? Has your mother or father told you that it is sinful? I think that you should worship your lover's body. I find it extremely hard to keep my hands off of Edward's body. I want to touch him, to run my fingers through his hair, to kiss every inch of him, and when I take him in my mouth, I know that no one else has ever done that. I want to know every inch of his body."

"But that is where urine comes out."

"So. The amount of urine that would still be there is so minuscule that it would never hurt you. If there is a drop at the tip, that is pre-cum, the normal juices that his male glands put out when he is aroused, just like you get wet."

"Do you let him kiss you there?"

"Oh my God, yes! The things that he can do with his tongue! Oh Hell Yes! Every chance that I get! He can make me come using just his tongue and fingering my clit."

"You don't think that it is disgusting?"

"I'm clean. What would be disgusting about it? He is worshiping my body just like I worship his. We take pleasure out of pleasuring each other. Making love isn't just about intercourse. Sometimes we just kiss all night. We don't need any more than that. We don't need to get past that. Sometimes all we need is to just hold each other. But, then there are other times when we need to physically join multiple times, all night long. Every day is different for us, especially lately."

"When my mom had **the** talk with me, she told me that my husband shouldn't want to do anything but straight sex. That is what the Bible says is accepted. She says that all of the other positions except the regular one are wrong because they mimic animals and try to make the woman the one who is in charge."

"That is a crock of shit, forgive my language. I'd be willing to bet that you mother hasn't ever had an orgasm in her life. The positions for sex have nothing to do with bestiality or women trying to take charge, they are about different motions when you have sex. When you have a different position, he enters you at a different angle and rubs against you differently, so the feeling is different.

"All I know is that I can't talk to her or my brother or sister about any of this. They would go straight back to her if I were to tell them."

"Are you sure? They might just surprise you."

"My brother is at seminary, and my sister is a missionary. I don't think that they would be receptive to the fact that their seventeen year old sister is no longer a virgin and needs advise."

"Well, I'll always be here to talk to you if you need me."

"Why don't you think that you deserve Edward? You are so nice and kind. I know that he seems to be a good person, but you are really special, Bella. Why did you put yourself down?"

"Oh, just some things that I did that hurt him really bad. He deserves better. He is one of a kind. He is really the kind soul who wouldn't hurt a fly, not me."

"What did you do? Can I ask?"

"Don't you have to get home?"

"That's okay. You don't have to tell me if you don't want to."

"It's not that, really. I've owned up to what I did. I just don't want you to get into trouble."

"Bella, don't," I heard Edward say in vampire volume. "You can't let her in on any of our secrets. You'll put her in danger."

"I won't use any names," I said back in vampire volume.

"If you insist," he said in vampire volume.

"I've done two things to him. When we married, I wasn't a virgin. He was."

"But I thought that you said that you had been together for five years."

"Yeah, we were."

"Then, the person that you slept with wasn't Edward."

"No, it wasn't. It was actually his arch nemesis. Edward and I had gotten into a little spat over something that happened at one of my birthday parties. He broke up with me, and this guy befriended me. One thing led to another, and we ended up in bed together. When Edward and I got back together, it was the hardest thing to tell him what I'd done. He forgave me because we were apart at the time, he said."

"Ouch. That must have hurt him a lot."

"Yes. I know that it still does."

"You said that you'd done two things..."

"Yes. The second thing was about six or seven weeks ago, now," I said, hanging my head.

"Bella, are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm okay. What I did was inexcusable. I can't believe that Edward has allowed me back into his life. Teresa, I had an affair. I slept with his best friend."

"You can't be serious. You've only been married since August. How could you have cheated on him already? And with his best friend? You're right, Bella. What you did was inexcusable. I think that I've misread you. My mother may have been right when she said that you may not be the kind of girl that I need to associate with." She let go of my hand and walked up the hill away from me.

I watched her walk away, and I felt his arms wrap around my waist. He kissed me on the neck, then he took my hand in his, and we walked up the hill to our car. Teresa and Christopher were talking beside their car. She was telling him everything that she had seen and that I had said. Edward stopped at my door and took my face in his hands. He tilted my lips to his and gave me the most sensuous kiss that we'd shared up until that point of the night. I could tell that he was trying to make a point to Teresa who had stopped talking to Christopher and was watching us.

Then he took my hand, and we walked up to Christopher and Teresa. "Christopher, Teresa, I wanted to thank you for the evening. We had a great time, and the company was nice. It was nice to get out of the house for a change, and meeting new people was a pleasure. We should do this again some time. Teresa, Bella told me what she told you, and I just wanted you to know that I love her more than life itself. Everything in our past is there, in our past. We have only the future to look forward to."

The look on her face was one of astonishment. "How could you forgive her for that? I mean, I can see how you might forgive her for loosing her virginity before you were married. After all, you had broken up at the time, but for cheating on you with your best friend! How in the world can you forgive that?"

He turned and kissed me. Then he said, "I love her. I can't live without her, and I know that she loves me. This thing happened. I don't like it, don't get me wrong, but I don't dwell on it. We, no, I took some time away from her, time to decide what I wanted to do about the situation. When I looked at all sides of the issue, I kept coming back to the same conclusion, and that was that I love Bella more than my life. If I didn't give her another chance, I might as well end my life for I can't live without her. If something were to happen to her, it would mean the end of my existence. So, I figured that I would be hypocritical for pushing her away for a mistake. She knows that what they did was wrong, and they have both promised me that it won't happen again. She loves me, and she won't break that promise." He kissed me again, and I returned his kiss twofold.

"Wow! Do you really mean that? You really can't live without her?" Teresa asked.

"Yes, I really mean that. I love Bella that much."

"And I love Edward that much. He is my soulmate. I will never betray his trust again," I said. "I didn't deserve another chance, but now that I have it, I will not blow it. He is my life, and I will live the rest of my eternity at his side, as his wife, as his lover."

"That is so sweet. That is what I want. How do you know when you have that kind of love?"

"I knew it very soon after I met her. I knew that I was drawn to her like I was never drawn to any other person in all of my life. Our love just grew from there until she encompassed my every thought. When we were apart, I felt empty. Anyway, Teresa, I would just like to ask you for your discretion about this matter. I wouldn't like our private lives spread all over the school. I'm not really happy with Bella for telling you about what happened, but I'm sure that she felt that she had a good reason to tell you. I won't second guess her reasons, but I will ask you to keep our secrets."

"Of course. I would never tell your secrets."

"But you were just telling Christopher."

"Don't you and Bella share things?"

"Yes, so I will ask for both of your discretion in the matter at hand."

"Of course, Edward. I'm not a gossip," Christopher said, "and I would never try to embarrass you with that information. Nothing good could come from telling anyone about your private relationship with Bella."

"Thank you." He shook Christopher's hand, and I reached out to hug Teresa. She made a motion to hug me, but she didn't put any feeling into it. Edward took my hand, and we walked back to our car. They got into Christopher's car and pulled out in front of us. Teresa finished telling him what we had talked about, and she told him that she wasn't sure that she could be my friend. He asked her why not, and she told him that she didn't think that she could be a friend with someone who could commit adultery, and he said that that was her mother talking. He also told her that if Edward could forgive me, that she didn't have any place to judge me. Then he told her to remember all that I had done to help her in the past couple of days. She was quiet, but Edward said that she was thinking that my morals were against everything that she stood for. He told me that he was afraid that I had lost my friend.

We turned away from them at the next corner, and Christopher waved to us as we pulled away. I waved back, and we headed home. Edward took my hand in his, and he was quiet. I think that he knew that I needed time to think. I had just wanted to assure Teresa that once you were truly in love, that love was overwhelming and could overcome almost everything. Instead, I had verified her mother's statements that I was a bad influence on her. What I had done with Jasper wasn't just sleeping with him. It wasn't just cheating on Edward with his brother. It was a betrayal of my husband. It was a betrayal of my love for Edward. It was taking everything that Edward meant to me and wadding it up and throwing it into the garbage, or it might as well have been. I had loved Edward with all of my heart for the past six years. I had abandoned Jacob immediately when Edward came back into my life because of my love for Edward, because I loved him with every breath that I took. I don't know what I was thinking when I thought that I was in love with Jasper. Granted, Jasper was good looking and was nice to me. He was a good friend, but what could possibly make me think that I loved him? I knew what love is. I love Edward. I don't come even close to feeling the same thing for Jasper, and I never have. What was I thinking? How could I have hurt Edward that way? Oh my God! What have I done? Teresa is right! I don't deserve Edward's love. I deserve to die for hurting him that way. I can't live with the pain that I hurt him like that. I started breathing hard and fast, but I didn't realize that my breathing had changed. All that I knew was that I had done something that I couldn't ever make up to my lover.

"Bella, calm down," Edward said, taking me into his arms. He had pulled the car over and gotten out. He was kneeling outside of my door, holding me in his arms. I tried to focus on him, but all that I could see was the hurt in his eyes on the day that I told him about what had happened, the pain that he was feeling before he left me sitting there in the woods.

"Bella, it's okay. Calm down," he said, running one of his hands through my hair and the other one on my back, but all that I could hear was him saying, _"Not yet. I can't yet. I don't know when, but not yet. I'm sorry." _

I remembered seeing his back as he left me, getting smaller as he ran from me, through the trees. I remembered every minute that I spent alone, waiting, hoping that he would return to me, that he would change his mind. "_Not yet. I can't yet. I don't know when, but not yet. I'm sorry." _The words kept repeating in my mind. I don't know if I had really heard them before. The obvious pain in these words cut me to the core. I had done this to him. While I hadn't meant to have the affair with Jasper, the fact remains that I did. I cut Edward's legs out from under him. Then, when he came back to me and gave me another chance thanks to Emmett, I had betrayed him again. I went into the woods with Jasper and betrayed him again. When he caught us together, his words had a finality to them: _"Bella, I love you, but I don't think that I could ever share you. I wasn't brought up that way, and I don't think that I am a person that will be able to compromise on that. I don't even know if I can in all good conscience take you back into my bed, knowing that you have had another man, not once but twice. Bella, I kept myself pure for you, until our wedding day. Chastity and faithfulness mean something to me. I'm not a man who believes in open marriages. Maybe you'd be better off staying with Jasper. He loves you, and he will take care of you, where I may not be able to anymore." _Then, when I'd argued with him that I did love him and that I couldn't live without him, he'd called an end to our relationship: _"Enough of the histrionics, Bella. You've made your choice, and you confirmed it here, today." _Then, almost in an afterthought, he looked at Jasper and said, _"Take care of her, brother." _

The events of that day replayed in my mind as if they were yesterday. I felt the emotions anew. I felt my heart drop out of my chest. I felt my stomach clench and my bowels cramp. My breathing became labored as I shook with the new aches of seeing him run away from me a second time, this time forever. This time with a look of loathing on his face. Instead of turning into Jasper this time, however, I crumpled into myself. I knew that the hurt that I'd caused my Edward by being with Jasper the second time had not hurt Edward but had destroyed him. I had taken the last shred of respect that he had for me and decimated it. How he could even look at me at this point in our lives was beyond my comprehension. I was lower than the grossest pond scum on the most brackish waterway in existence. I shuddered at the thought of his lips meeting mine, his fingers touching my skin, and the ultimate pollution, his manhood coming in contact with my core. My body was filth, and his purity had been spoiled, worse than that; it had been contaminated, tainted by my obsession with Jasper. I couldn't let his body be subjected to my putrid carcass any longer.

"Bella, love, what's wrong? What can I do? Love, it's okay! Calm down. Everything's going to be okay," he was saying while stroking my back. I looked into his eyes. All that I could see was love and concern. He was wrong to love me. I was filled with corruption. My soul was vile, wicked, not worthy of his love. I leaped out of his arms and ran. The arms of the surrounding woods enveloped me as I sprinted at full speed, not knowing to where I ran, just trying to put distance between my pure, loving husband and me. I heard him following, knowing that he would, hoping that my newborn speed would allow me to outdistance him.

I ran through the rest of that night and into the next morning before I could no longer hear his footsteps behind me. I had no idea where I was, but I knew that the weather was warmer, and the sun was shining. I had to be much more careful to stick to thicker forests so that I wouldn't be spotted. Once, I heard campers in the vicinity, and I had to change my path to avoid them. The sloping hills had turned into mountains. I finally stopped running as the sun started to set on Saturday evening. I found a fallen tree which reminded me of myself, once standing tall and proud, now fallen and rotten in the core, and leaned against it watching twilight approach. My mind kept cycling everything that Edward had said to me those days when I had fallen, no, not fell, dove into the abyss of unfaithfulness. Each word burned into my soul, like the scarlet letter "A" on Hester Prynne's breast. I knew that even if Edward could forgive me for my actions, I could never forgive myself. Why it took me so long to realize the significance of what we'd done, I couldn't fathom. All that I knew was that I now understood.

I sat there through the night. Several wild animals began to approach me, seeming to be looking for a meal, but when they got close enough to smell me, they tucked tail and ran, shivering, knowing that I would be no meal for them this evening. Had I the energy or the will to continue existing, they could have easily been a scrumptious meal for me, however, not even the cougar, whose blood melted on my palate, could tempt me tonight. No ambrosia could have pierced the fact that there was no calling for me to walk this earth. I had tormented the only man who I could ever love. I was unworthy of his love, and I had no reason to exist. If I could have ripped my own head off and thrown myself into a fire, I would have. As it was, I had no means to build a fire, or I would have just thrown myself whole into one and be done with this existence. So, instead of burning myself, I leaned against my fallen tree and recalled Edward's face as he left me the second time.

Around noon Saturday, I again heard voices approaching me. I could tell that there were three men, well, more like one man and two teenagers. They were arguing about some tracks that they'd seen along the trail that they were walking on. The man told them that they were big cat tracks, and one of the boys said that they were wolf tracks. He was certain that he'd heard a wolf's howl during the night, and the tracks must belong to the wolf. The other boy was quiet, answering only when one of the others asked him a question. I got up from my perch and quickly climbed a nearby tree. I watched as they came into visual range. The man was large, about Emmett's size. He wore a flannel shirt and jeans and well worn hiking boots. The boys weren't dressed for hiking. They wore thin shirts and jeans with tennis shoes without socks. As they came around the bend, one of the boys, the quiet one, slipped and started sliding down a rather steep embankment which led to a sharp drop-off of about fifty feet. He was reaching for bushes and trees, anything to stop his fall, but he couldn't seem to grasp hold of anything that would hold his weight. The man turned and told the other boy to stay put, and he tried to quickly tie off a rope to a tree with the obvious intention of going after the boy. I knew that he'd never get to him in time. Without thinking about the implications, I jumped out of the tree and raced to a spot below the boy's path, out of sight of the man. I set myself up to intercept his fall, and when his body made contact with mine, he stopped with a sudden jerk. In one smooth motion, I lifted him over my back and made my way back up the hill. I set him back on the path, and then I disappeared into the forest, making my way immediately to the top of a large tree then traveling from treetop to treetop. I stopped far enough away to still be within voice range but not in visual range. I heard the man ask what happened, and he answered that an angel swooped down and picked him up, carrying him to the trail. The man laughed at him, but the other boy confirmed the story saying that he'd seen the whole thing. The angel had swooped down from the sky and had stood in front of him, catching him when he reached her and putting him on her back to carry him back up to the trail. Then she flew back into the sky and disappeared.

I heard a light laughter coming from behind me, in an adjacent tree. I turned to see Edward poised in the tree making ready to leap into the tree that I was perched in. "It's about time that someone else sees the angel in you," he said as he lithely landed on the branch below the one that I was on. He reached out to take my hand, and I pulled mine away from his. I turned away from him and with a deep breath, I jumped to another tree. "Okay, I get it," he said. "I've done something to make you mad. Whatever I did, I'm so sorry! Bella, please forgive me. I'm not sure what I've done, but whatever it was, I didn't mean to do it. I swear. I never meant to hurt you. Please, Bella! Just talk to me. Tell me what I did so that I can make it up to you."

Only Edward would assume that he'd done something wrong. Edward, the perfect man. The only man who was guiltless in all of this. The man with the heart which was full of forgiveness was willing to take the blame for my shortcomings. I slowly turned to face him. "No, Edward. This isn't your fault. Teresa is right. I'm disgusting and worthless. I don't deserve you or your forgiveness, and I can't allow you to continue to dirty yourself by touching my befouled body. Don't come any closer. I'm serious. You deserve better than me."

"Bella, please, don't be silly. I thought that we were past that. Bella, I'm not saying that what the two of you did wasn't wrong. It hurt me deeply, but you and I have pledged ourselves to each other. We are back together. We are a couple. We are married. You and I are one being, formed of each other. I know that you and Jasper aren't together any more. I know that you love me. I hope that you know that I love you. Bella, I need you in my life. You are my other half, and I can't survive without my other half."

"No, I'm no longer good enough for you. All I can do is hurt you. My body has been vilely corrupted. If you touch it, you will be contaminated. I can't allow that. I will stay away from you. That way there won't be any temptation for you to desecrate your perfection any more than you already have."

"Bella, stop. You're talking nonsense. You're acting as if your body is contagious with some disease."

"How do you know that I'm not. Jasper has been around and around the block, so to speak. How are you so confident that I'm not infected with some foul, contagious disease?"

"Love, vampires can't get sick. It would be impossible for you to contract any disease from your...activities with Jasper."

"Still, I'm dirty, in body and in soul. Go back home, Edward. Live your life. Find someone who deserves the man that you are. Fall in love with someone who deserves to be loved by you. Forget about me. Forget that I ever existed." I turned and flew through the trees, grabbing branches by the smallest of margins, falling twice, catching another branch at the last moment before falling off the edge of the cliff. I continued to run, again until I could no longer hear him pursuing me. As the sun set and twilight encompassed me, I found a small enclosure to hide in. This time the face that cycled in front of my eyes was my Edward's, the look on his face one of shock as I left him sitting in the trees.


	34. Chapter 34

**Disclaimer – Stephenie Meyer owns it all.**

**Chapter 34 – Us Time**

I let myself sit in my alcove through the night and into the morning. The rain pounded through the trees, small rivers tracing pathways down the mountain side. Nothing was moving through the forest. The sun rose behind storm clouds Sunday morning. As I rose to continue my flight from Edward, he entered my little den, blocking the exit.

"Why are you here?" I asked him as he dripped onto the floor causing the rainwater to run in rivulets towards my seat.

"Bella, I want to talk to you, and I want you to listen to me. Can you do that, please?"

"I've said all that I have to say about the issue, Edward. Why can't you respect my feelings?"

"Because when I was having a hard time dealing with what happened, you asked me to listen to you, and I did. I think that you owe me the same courtesy."

"Okay, I'll sit here and listen, but I want you to know that I've made up my mind. There isn't anything that you can do that is going to make me change it. Go ahead, tell me what you have to say. Let's get this over with."

"Bella, I've been sitting behind that tree over there for the past five hours trying to think of exactly what I wanted to say to you. I don't want to belittle your feelings. Since we've been in this situation, the one thing that I've tried not to do is to belittle your feelings. When you told me that you loved Jasper in his own way, I tried to accept that. Jasper told me that you weren't feeling actual, real, true love, but you were interpreting what you were feeling as love. He said that you were convinced in your mind that love was what you were feeling. That put me in a very strange position. I knew from talking to Jasper that you were still totally in love with me, but you thought that you were in love with him as well. Therefore, your infidelity with Jasper was based on nothing but the truest of emotions in your heart.

Bella, the only thing that you have had a problem with since you were changed has been controlling your emotions. I understand that your emotions tend to come out of left field, and even you aren't aware of the fact that they have overwhelmed your reality. The emotions that you are experiencing now are controlling your thoughts and actions just like they did on the day that the police arrested Carlisle and Esme and the social workers had to separate us. Remember, you actually tried to attack both the policeman and Mrs. Lewis. Your anger got the best of you. You weren't able to control your emotions at that time either.

Then, when Jasper got into the fight with Emmett, you felt like everyone was ignoring his needs. That made you feel the compulsion to go after him, to protect him from himself, from his self-hate. When you were together, your feelings of admiration and intense friendship and his feelings of admiration and affection for you combined with his gratefulness for your defending him to the rest of us got out of control. Again, your emotions took over your consciousness, and you made decisions based on those emotions, not the tangibility of the real world that was buried deep within your awareness. Your perception of what you were doing was buried beneath all of those emotions. You have always been a compassionate person, Bella, and when we weren't taking Jasper's side in the fight with Emmett, you felt a true need to defend him. You felt that Emmett had taken things too far in picking a fight with Jasper, and he deserved the trouncing that he got at Jasper's hands. After the two of you advanced your physical relationship, your morals wouldn't allow you to admit that you'd been with Jasper precipitously, therefore, you convinced yourself that you were in love with him. He knew afterward that your feelings for him weren't really love, not the way that you love me. He tried to tell you, but you had a hard time believing that fact. You needed to be in love with him in order to justify what you'd done with him. Otherwise, you'd feel the need to condemn yourself and find a way to punish yourself for your actions, just as you are doing now.

Love, Friday night when Teresa told you that you were immoral and had committed adultery, your emotions kicked into high gear again. That is the first time that someone has flat out confronted you with the words "immoral" and "adultery," and almost immediately your face went blank. I've seen that look in you twice before, when it took Jasper, Emmett, and myself to pull you away from that policeman and after you came back from your weekend with Jasper. I knew then that it was too late to prevent the emotions from taking over; I just didn't know how overwhelming it would be for you to have to deal with those emotions. I had thought that you'd dealt with most of them, but this weekend has proven me wrong.

Bella, love. I know that you're dealing with a lot of emotions right now, but I'd like to talk to you about what you're feeling. I think that some of it is already water under the bridge, and I think that some of it may need to be discussed if you feel that we haven't talked about it enough. This is why I've come after you. I'm not willing to let you go over this situation. Shit happens. I've lived long enough to know that and accept that as inevitable." He moved closer to me, and I allowed him to sit down next to me.

"Edward, don't you remember all of the horrible things that I've done since being changed? I've broken just about every rule in the Good Book."

"Bella, you've been remarkable. You haven't killed. I think that all of us, except for maybe Carlisle, have killed humans at one time or another, and you've been able to not only disregard that temptation, but you have been able to ignore all of the blood lust that is so overwhelming for the rest of us. Hell, you really don't have any blood lust at all."

"No, I've cheated on you. I didn't wait on you. I married Jacob. Then I cheated on you. How can you even look at me. I've been nothing but unfaithful to you. How can you trust me ever again?"

"Bella, I left you, remember?"

"Yeah, I'm sure that I deserved it."

"Why? What did you do to deserve it?"

"I cut myself in a room full of vampires. How stupid was that?"

"Bella, it was an accident, and accidents happen. You could no more prevent it from happening than you could have known that it was going to happen. I'm the jerk who left you. I was so stupid. I thought that by leaving you, I could prevent bad things from happening to you. I thought that by depriving myself of you and your love that you could have a normal life. Therefore, the fact that you married Jacob is my fault, not yours."

"But,"

"No buts, Bella. You can't say that you are in any way responsible for my leaving. If I hadn't left, you never would have married Jacob, would you?"

"No, I guess not. I would have never left you if you'd stayed. I would have never married Jacob if you'd stayed, but that doesn't change that fact that I cheated on you."

"No, it doesn't. You and Jasper both hurt me deeply. I thought that I could trust the both of you implicitly, and both of you let me down. When I first found out what you'd done, I didn't think that I'd be able to live with the fact that you'd hurt me that way. Then I gave you another chance. I took a big leap of faith, and the two of you stabbed me in the back. Bella, when I walked up on the two of you, I could have died. You were naked and in his arms. The two of you smelled of your combined passion. I could hear Jasper's thoughts that he wanted you even though he knew that you were in love with me. But the bottom line, Bella, is that when I left for Denali, I had every intention of being with Tanya. I wanted to prove to you and to myself that I could be a man just like Jasper. So you see, I'm not innocent, either."

"But you changed your mind, Edward. You never slept with Tanya. You remained faithful to me. You remained true to your wedding vows. You returned to me whole."

"And I returned to you with my heart intact. You were forgiven. Jasper was forgiven. I realized that I absolutely could not live one more day of my life without you by my side. My love for you is stronger than the hurt that you and Jasper caused me."

"But I hurt you."

"Yes, you did, but I've decided that it doesn't matter."

"How can you decide that it doesn't matter? How can you just forgive me for such a monstrous mistake?"

"How did you forgive me for leaving you for five years? You fainted when you saw me in gross lab, and as soon as you regained consciousness, you reached for me. You fell into my arms after class, and at your apartment, you took me back into your bed on that first night. I hurt you so badly. You even said that I broke you and that you died that day that I left you in the woods. I think that I hurt you as badly as you hurt me, and you forgave me instantaneously upon seeing me for the first time in five years. What you should be asking me is, 'What took you so long to forgive me?'"

"How can you compare the two things, Edward? You thought that you were leaving me for my best interest. You didn't intend to hurt me. I wasn't doing anything in your best interest, though I never did anything with the intent of hurting you."

"It really doesn't matter the reason behind why I left you, does it? I shattered your soul. I left you broken and alone. I drove you into the arms of another man, a man that you didn't love. I forced you to live five years of your life in a lie, pretending to be happy, when in fact, you were still broken, longing for me to return to you. How do you think that it makes me feel to know that because of my stupid selfishness, you suffered for so long, having to deceive everyone around you, masquerading yourself as a contented woman? Bella, I know what it is to live with the guilt of hurting the one person in the world that means the most to you. You aren't alone in that feeling."

"I didn't know that you felt that way. Edward, you shouldn't feel bad about that. I forgave you for that a long time ago. We've moved past that. That is in our past." I got up from where I was sitting and walked over to him. I put my arms around his neck and kissed him on the cheek. "You have nothing to be sorry for, my Edward." I ran my fingers through his hair and moved my lips to graze his. He gently moved his arms to circle my waist.

"That is what I've been trying to tell you, love. You have nothing to be sorry for, my Bella. I have already forgiven you. We have already moved past everything dealing with you and Jasper. You and Jasper and Alice and I are friends now. We are all living together in a home on the lake. We've already worked through all of the guilt and accusations. Everything has been forgiven by both Alice and me. Bella, you don't have to worry about what Teresa said. We've already been through the pain and the accusations and the forgiveness."

"We have, haven't we?"

"Yes, love, we have. We have all started over. We are all doing fine right now."

I sat down in his lap, putting my head on his shoulder. He ran his fingers through my hair. I just let him hold me. We sat there, me in his arms, for several hours. When the sun started to go down, he lifted me onto his back and started to run through the forest. He carried me all night, like he used to do when I was still human. When the sun rose in the morning, we were still miles from our home. We stopped by a river and fed on some deer which had stopped to drink.

Instead of continuing on our run, we sat for a little while on the bank of the river, watching it flow downstream. Occasionally, a fish would jump, breaking the surface of the river, but most of the time, the river was calm and flowed gently and steadily down the mountain. Not wanting to break the silence, I reached over and ran my finger over the back of Edward's hand. He glanced up and smiled at me. I loved his smile. It was always filled with so much affection. I leaned over and laid my head against his shoulder, and he wrapped his arm around my back, pulling me in closer. It felt like I was home again after being gone for a lifetime. I couldn't help myself. I let out a contented sigh. Edward kissed the top of my head, then he laid his head down on top of mine.

After a few minutes, I lifted my head and put my hands on his chest, pushing him lightly, indicating my wish for us to lie back. He turned around, looking behind us, making sure that the ground was clear of twigs, and then he laid us back onto the bank of the river. I snuggled into the side of his body, my head coming to lie against his shoulder and chest and my arm and leg swept across his body. He wrapped his arms around me, holding me against him, not squeezing me, but offering me the comfort and peace that I was accustomed to finding in his arms. We laid there, he and I, just holding each other until twilight began to cross the sky to the east.

I lifted my head onto my hand and looked into his eyes. What I saw there confirmed everything that he'd said earlier the day before. As he gazed back into my eyes, I saw love and acceptance. He lifted his hand and gently brought it to stroke my cheek. The touch of his fingers on my skin sent electric bolts through every cell in my body. I sighed, and his fingers slowly moved towards my lips. As they barely stroked their outline, I kissed them, one finger at a time. When I got to the pointer finger, I took just the tip of it between my lips. He sighed as I very softly ran my tongue over just the tip of his finger, barely making contact with it.

I could feel his fingers starting to tremble, and he reached behind my head with his other hand, pulling me back down so that my head was even with his but was lying on the crook of his arm. He grasped my hair and pulled my lips to his. He allowed his lips to barely touch mine, softly caressing them with gentle movements, never taking it any farther than a chaste kiss, but within that kiss he spoke volumes about the amount of love that he carried in his heart for me. He never needed to take our kiss any farther.

We laid in each other's embrace, just kissing each other, until the sun rose over the peaks to our east. We had never noticed the moon rising or the night animals moving around us. Our world that night was made of the two of us, totally embracing the fact that we were together, soul mates, needing only to hold each other and be together in only the most basic of ways. While our love making was wonderful and the way that it united us was beyond magical, it wasn't necessary for our souls to be forever interwoven.

Our love and friendship renewed, we stood as the sun rose. We walked, hand in hand, down the mountain, following the silent river until it joined with another, larger river. We watched as the flow became more turbulent, tossing and tumbling over the hidden boulders deposited by the long gone glaciers of eras past. We turned to look at each other, smiles gracing our faces, and after a quick kiss, we started running towards our home.

As the day approached noon, we stepped through our back door. We went straight to our room and to our shower. I reached in and started the stream of water to let it warm up. Then I reached for Edward's shirt and pulled it over his head. I threw it towards the laundry basket, and then I ran my fingers along his chest. The feel of his muscles under my fingertips made my whole body tingle as if I were walking outside just before a thunderstorm was about to begin. He reached down and hooked his fingers underneath my top. Ever so slowly, he lifted the hem of my shirt. As he exposed new areas of my skin, he leaned over and lightly covered those areas with butterfly kisses. When he reached my arms, I lifted them over my head so that he could remove the shirt completely. He tossed it into the laundry basket with a flick of his wrist, then his lips returned to my chest, between my breasts. My legs felt weak, and my knees began to quiver. He reached behind me with one of his arms to unfasten my bra while his other arm wrapped around my waist to provide support for my ever wobbly body. As my bra fell to the bathroom floor, his mouth went to my nipple which responded immediately by puckering up. I felt the air flowing between my legs, cool because of the wetness that had gathered there, and I realized that Edward had unfastened my jeans and pushed them down to my ankles. At some point, he had also removed his jeans because he opened the shower door, and holding me close to him, stepped into the shower.

I felt the hot water striking me on the back as he leaned down, and his lips found mine. His tongue pressed forward, separating my lips and brushing against mine as I opened my mouth to take his tongue between my lips. I sighed as his tongue traced the roof of my mouth, and I felt a shiver shoot throughout my body. I melted into him, my muscles failing me. As my body leaned into his, I felt his length press into my abdomen. Realizing that he needed me as much as I needed him at this moment, I reached down and took him in my hand. I began to stroke him, but he shook his head. I started to pull away from him, but he pulled me back. "No, love. This is all about you." He leaned in and started to kiss my neck with an opened mouth. He nibbled at my throat, and before I knew what was happening, I felt his teeth enter my throat at the same place that Victoria had bitten me. He had latched onto my neck, and he was sucking my venom into his mouth. When I heard him swallow, I felt my body begin to clamp down, and despite the pain that his "feeding" was causing me, I came at that moment.

"Oh, Edward! My God!" I cried out in ecstasy!

Then, without breaking his hold on my throat, he began to inject his venom into my body. I immediately came again, screaming my exultations into the shower walls. When he finally broke his hold on my neck, he went immediately to my lips. I kissed him hard and deep. Our tongues danced between our mouths, neither able to take control, neither finding purchase. Once again, he started to kiss my body, beginning at my neck, then he slowly and precisely moved his way down to cover every inch between my neck and my belly button. Once there, he stuck his tongue into the cavity, swirling it around. To my disbelief, I felt all sorts of tingles in my lower lips and between them. I moaned and grabbed at his head. He looked up at me and smiled, then he proceeded further down my body. Lifting my left leg and placing it over his shoulder, he licked down that hollow between my hip and my leg. I drew in my breath as his tongue slowly drifted towards my center and split my lower lips apart just as effectively as he always split my upper lips. When his lips took my clit into his mouth, and he took it between his teeth and gently bit down on it, I thought that I was going to go through the roof. My inner muscles were starting to clamp down again, and as I came again, I felt his tongue enter me, thrusting inside of me to lap up all of the juices that I had produced during my earlier climaxes. As I started to spiral down from my latest climax, he removed his tongue from inside me and replaced it with his fingers which went immediately to my oh, so stimulated G-spot and started to randomly brush over it, while his tongue found my clit again and started to dance the two-step with it while alternating with a nibble here and there. Instead of coming down from my ecstasy, he built me back up, causing me to climax time and again, one time after another, until my body was spent and the only things holding me semi-upright were his hands and his face which was still planted between my legs. I was no longer breathing. The only sounds coming from my body was a groan here and there, and those were minutes apart.

When even those subsided, he must have thought that I'd had enough. He removed himself from my body, still holding me in a semi-upright position. He reached for a bath cloth, and after putting some of my body wash on it, he gently bathed my body. Then, after adjusting the shower spray and sitting in the floor of the shower and sitting me in his lap, he shampooed my hair. After rinsing it well, he stood with me, and removing me from the shower, he dried my hair and my body. He carried me into the bedroom and laid me onto the bed and covered me with a clean sheet. Then he went back and showered.

When he joined me in the bed, he gazed into my eyes. "I love you, Bella. No matter what anyone ever says in the space of all of eternity, I want you to know that I Love You."

While Edward was in the shower, my breathing had returned to normal. As he climbed under the sheet next to me, I turned to face him. I looked into his eyes and saw all of the love that I had felt earlier gazing back at me. I propped up on my elbow and kissed him, this time trying to show him that I loved him as much as he loved me. I ran my tongue over his lips, then when he parted them, I slipped my tongue into his mouth, going at once to the roof of his mouth, knowing that it tickled him to some extent, as much as he, being a vampire, could be tickled. He started to pull away from me, but I encased him within my arms, one going behind his head to entangle my fingers into his bronze locks, and the other to his hips, to pull him into my body. My top leg also wrapped itself around his legs, effectively cutting off his movement away from me.

Once I had him totally within my grasp, I started lightly moving my hand at his hip lightly up and down his back, making soft circles and other designs on his skin. Barely touching him, I felt him shiver, and his skin reacted somewhat as if he had goosebumps, but not quite the same. Each of the almost invisible hairs on his back, arms, and legs had raised itself to standing, and his skin, while not pebbly like a human's, was still not quite smooth because of the hairs. He tried again to pull away from me. This time, though, because the sensation that he was trying to pull away from was on his back, he ended up pushing himself closer into my body. I couldn't help but to smile into my kiss, breaking it for the time being. "Am I to assume that you can't stay away from me?" I teased.

"Um hmmmm," he sighed, and I leaned back in towards his face only to kiss his nose, then his ear lobe, then, using my fingers to grip his hair and pull his head back, I moved down onto his neck.

"Do you know how good it felt for you to bite me?" I asked him between kissing him on the neck and softly nibbling at his neck. I heard him make a slight grunting sound, and the fact that he suddenly became extremely hard against my stomach spoke wonders for his thoughts on the matter. "Would you like for me to return the favor?" I whispered as I worked myself back up to his ear, kissing his neck all of the way. I also made sure that as I moved, I rubbed my body against his hard on. He groaned as I moved against him, nodding his head slowly, making sure that his neck was fully exposed to my kisses. I stayed where I was to get better positioning, and as I opened my mouth to his neck, he began grinding his hips into my abdomen, thrusting against me, trying to obtain more friction. I sucked at my chosen spot on his neck, and I could feel the venom as it pulsed through his carotid artery. I took a deep breath and bit into the artery. I began to drink, one swallow, another. After the third swallow, I stopped my feeding and reversed everything. I began to inject my venom into him. I heard him cry out, not in pain, but in ecstasy, and I felt his warm cum as it landed on my chest. Finished, I licked the wounds, and they immediately sealed over.

Spent, I released him from my grasp and let him roll onto his back. I moved down onto his chest where his cum had been shared between us. I kissed and licked him clean, progressing down to his hips where I paid special attention to the "V" of his muscles leading down to his pelvis. I followed them down until I reached his retreating member, already spent of its seed. I took him into my mouth, taking him all the way, running my tongue over and under, making sure that all of him was clean, and when I ran my tongue along the slit at the tip, he seemed to come back to life. He hardened inside of my mouth, and as I continued to run my tongue around, I also began to pump him in and out, setting up a rhythm that I knew that he liked. I took one of his balls into my hands and began to lightly stroke it, and his groans became louder. Before long, his hands were in my hair, and he was guiding me the way that he liked it. I was making designs with my tongue on the way down, and on the way out, I would just lay my tongue flat against the bottom of his member. I would play on the way down, and suck him on the way out. In no time, he was calling my name. Then, with several final fast thrusts, he was cumming. I took him and everything he had to offer. When he had climaxed for the second time, he pulled me up to the top of the bed and kissed me.

"Oh, I am so sorry! I'll...." I turned around just in time to see Charlie leaving the doorway which just happened to be open. I looked around at what he had walked in on. Edward and I were naked; I had just finished giving him a blow job; I had his cum on my chest; and it was the middle of a school day. Exactly how many more things could I do to embarrass my father? I looked down at Edward and grimaced.

"Bella, we are married," he said. "What in the world would make him come into our bedroom without at least knocking?"

"Did we even shut the door when we came in? I don't think that we did. We went straight to the shower. I know that I didn't shut it. Did you?"

"No, I didn't either."

"Well, I'd better go and see what he wanted. Do you want to come with me?"

"Not on your life. I don't particularly want to face Charlie after that scene."

"So much for loving me for the rest of eternity."

"Oh, I'll love you for the rest of eternity, but that doesn't include facing your human dad after he walked in on us 'in the flesh' so to speak. That wasn't in the marriage vows, love."

"No, but 'in good times and in BAD' was in the marriage vows, dear."

"Well, at least he can't ground you."

"And at least he can't shoot you, now come on." I pulled him out of the bed and into the bathroom where I wet a washcloth and washed off both of our bodies. Then I pulled him into the bedroom where we both got dressed.

We tentatively walked downstairs where Charlie was sitting on the couch with his elbows on his knees and his head in his hands.

"Um, Charlie, can I get you some aspirin?" Edward asked.

Charlie looked up at the two of us with a pained look on his face. "Ah, yes, thank you. I think that would help."

"Okay, I'll be right back." Edward headed towards the door.

I grabbed him by the arm and pulled him back. "Exactly where do you think you are going?"

"To town. Charlie needs some aspirin, and we don't have any in the house."

"That's okay. I have some down at my house. I'll get it later."

"Are you sure Charlie? It's no trouble at all."

"I'm sure. Look, you two. I'm sorry that I walked in on...., well that I didn't knock, well you know. I mean, you are married, and you are legal to, well, you know, and, well, you know."

"Dad, we never meant for anyone to be here. I mean, it is the middle of the day, and we thought that you'd be at work, and Jasper and Alice would be at school."

"Yeah, about that. Why aren't you two at school?"

"Well, I've had a really bad weekend. I pretty much ran away from everything and everyone Friday. Edward followed me and was finally able to talk me into coming back this morning."

"Was it something somebody said?" Charlie got up from his chair as if he was going to go out and take matters into his own hand, like he was going to be a protective parent who was going out to gain vengeance for his only daughter.

"Yes, Charlie, it was something that someone said, but it is over now. Edward reassured me that everything is alright as far as he is concerned, and as long as that is the case, what anyone else thinks doesn't really matter. I was a fool to think that I could become a friend with a human. The others tried to warn me. I guess that I'm too stubborn to remember the fact that they've only lived as vampires for a combined total of over 300 years. When they tell me something, it is usually because one or more of them has tried it, and they have personal results to base their recommendation on."

"You got your stubbornness from your grandmother Swan. She was the most stubborn woman on the face of the planet. You would have loved her, Bella."

"Anyway, Dad, you came over for a reason? I assume it wasn't to catch Edward and me in bed."

Charlie shook his head as if doing so would remove the sight from his memory. "Yes. I wanted to tell you about this case that I've been working on."

"I thought that you said that it would be violating your client's rights to privacy if you were to tell anyone about it, Dad."

"You two know how to keep a secret if any two people on the planet do. It's just..."

"Hey, welcome home you two. It is about time that the two of you made it back. We've been having to cover for you at school, and the sickness excuse is running kind of thin. I don't think that it would work another day. As it is, I don't think that they are going to allow you two back in without a doctor's excuse," Alice said as she and Jasper came in the front door. They walked in and sat down in the living room across from Charlie.

"Alice, Jasper, we were just talking with Charlie about the case that he's working on," I started to say.

"No, Bella, they can stay. I may need their input as well," Charlie interrupted me, still looking at the floor. "As I was saying. I know that you can all keep secrets. If it got out that I was talking to anyone about this, or any, case that I was working on, I'd never work again."

"We understand that, Charlie. You know that we'd never tell a soul what you tell us. We'd never betray your trust," Edward said.

"Well, I'm working on a divorce case for a woman named Adeline Baker. Like I told you last week, she looked me up before I even got my license. She was waiting for me to show up at the office the morning after they hung the sign over the door. She seemed anxious, and when I told her that I was still waiting on my license to come in the mail, she got nervous. I took her number and told her that I would call her as soon as the license arrived. Well, as soon as I got the license, I phoned her, and we planned to meet Friday afternoon. She told me that she was divorcing her husband because he physically abused her. She provided me with copies of photographs that showed her with black eyes, cut lips, and bruises to her arms, chest, and abdomen. She then told me that she'd had to go out of state to find an attorney who would take her case because her husband belonged to a really influential family. The problem was that she'd signed a prenuptial agreement that stated that she wouldn't get any of their assets unless she could prove that he'd cheated on her. She told me that she knew that he had been cheating on her since right after their honeymoon, but she had never been able to hire a private investigator to get the evidence that she'd need to prove it. Everyone that she'd approached had been too afraid to get involved with his family. She'd even tried to go out of state to hire someone, but she was unsuccessful. One of the worst beatings that she'd suffered was when word got back to her husband that she was trying to hire someone to investigate him."

"She told you this up front?" I asked.

"Yes."

"And you didn't think that maybe you shouldn't get involved?"

"Bella, I'm a cop. I don't let things like threats influence my actions. This lady needs help in the worst way. What kind of man would I be if I refused to help her?"

"So, what did you find out?"

"Well, I followed the prick Friday night and sure enough, he met another woman, took her to dinner, and then went back to her place with her. I have a video of the whole evening, from their dinner to their after dinner activities, if you know what I mean. Then I also followed him Saturday night. He met with another woman, though their activities were the same. I also have a video of their rendezvous. He had the gall to go to church on Sunday morning, and he played with the children on Sunday afternoon. When I followed him last night, I got the video again, but I think that I was seen. I've had the feeling that I've been watched all day. Court is tomorrow, and I'm going to be called on to testify and show my evidence. I met with Adeline's attorney this morning and showed him the evidence, and he said that it was invaluable to her case. I've made copies of all of the videos, and I'd like for you guys to keep them safe for me, just in case the ones in the office safe get 'lost,'" Charlie made quotation marks with his fingers at the word lost.

"Sure, Dad. Give them to Jasper. He'll put them into the safe." Charlie handed Jasper three computer DVD's, and Jasper immediately took them upstairs. "Are you in any danger?"

"I don't think so, Bells. I'm not any good to them without the videos."

"Why don't you stay with us tonight anyway? If the family is as influential as you say that they are, you don't need to take any chances."

"Bells, I'm not going to jump at everything that goes bump in the night. That's just not my style."

"Well, why don't you let me stay with you then? It'll be like old times."

"Why? Is Edward going to sneak into your bedroom window?" I jerked my head around to look at Edward, then back around to look at my dad. "What? You think that I didn't know all along that your boyfriend was climbing the tree and coming in through the window? Bella, what kind of a cop do you think that I am? My hearing is excellent. I know that the two of you weren't doing anything that you shouldn't have been doing, and I trusted you implicitly. If you had ever betrayed that trust, I would have put an end to those visits, or at least I would have tried to. Knowing now that Edward was a vampire, I guess that it would have been a losing battle, but I would have at least confronted the two of you about what you were doing."

"I never had a clue that you knew that Edward was coming in," I said, astonishment in my voice.

"I never picked it up in your thoughts," Edward said.

"That's because I never thought about it. I had complete faith in Bella, and surprisingly, I also had complete faith in you as well, Edward. Although I never told you, I knew that you loved Bella and would never hurt her. It shocked me to the core when you left her."

"Then why did you always push me so hard towards Jacob?"

"I didn't want to lose you. I knew that you'd never be happy with him, so I thought that if I pushed you that way, I wouldn't ever lose you."  
"I see. Well, what do you say? Can I stay over?"

"No, Bells, you spend time with Edward. I'll be okay. Besides, I'm not going to be at the house tonight. I'm going to be at the office. I need to get everything prepared for tomorrow."

"Well, we are going to go with you to the hearing tomorrow, whether you like it or not. What time do you have to be there?"

"The hearing starts at nine o'clock in Judge Sander's courtroom. I don't get to go in until I'm called. I'll be waiting outside in the hallway with the other witnesses. Adeline will present her case first because she is the one suing for divorce."

"Well, we'll meet you there at eight thirty."

"Bella, don't mess things up for you guys. Alice already said that you two have missed too much school. How will you explain missing another day?"

"It doesn't matter. I'm a little unsettled about this 'family' and your feeling that you're being followed. I have you back in my life, Dad, and I don't want anything to happen to you."

"I'm a tough old cop, Bella. Nothing is going to happen to me. I guess that I'll be seeing you and Edward in the morning then. You guys have a good night, well, I mean, continue what I interrupted," Charlie said, a blush splashing his face with a redness that would match Rudolph's nose on any Christmas Eve night. He gave me a quick hug and practically raced towards the front door.

"Soooo, Charlie interrupted a lovin' moment?" Alice prodded.

"Ummm, well, kind of," I said. "We forgot to close the door when we got home and went to take our shower."

"Uh huh. Likely story," Alice said.

"Well, it's the only one that you're going to get, sweet sister," Edward said, taking me into his arms and planting a kiss on the top of my head.

"I'm cool with that. Now, would the two of you like to explain to us where you have been since Friday night?" Alice inquired as she took a seat on the couch in the living room, pulling Jasper down with her.

"Bella had a newborn emotional situation over something that Teresa said to her Friday night. She felt the need for some alone time to work some things out, and while I decided to give her some space, I wasn't about to let her out of my sight. After we talked, we took some us time. That's really all there is to it," Edward said after sitting down on the love seat and pulling me into his lap.

"I guess that would explain why Teresa has been asking us where you two are and if you are okay. We really haven't had an answer for her, so we've just been saying that you have had a virus, and you haven't felt like coming to school. It is what we've been telling the teachers as well. What did she say that set you off, Bella?"

"It doesn't matter. We've worked through it, and I don't want to bring it up again," Edward broke in before I could answer the question. He leaned down and kissed me on the lips. He whispered in my ear so softly that only I could hear him, "It doesn't matter, and I don't ever want to discuss it again. As far as I'm concerned, it never happened, just like as far as you're concerned, I never left you. Please, Bella, wipe it from your memory." I nodded, and looking into his eyes, I kissed him, immediately deepening the kiss, forgetting that anyone else was in the room.


	35. Chapter 35

**Disclaimer – Stephenie Meyer owns it all.**

**Chapter 35 – Nobody Messes With My Father**

Alice and Jasper left for school as Edward and I left for the courthouse. We arrived a little early to make sure that we could find Judge Sander's courtroom. We took a seat on the bench outside of the double doors leading into the room and watched as the people began to arrive. Several men soon got off of the elevator together. They were surrounding a younger man; he looked to be about twenty-five or thirty years old. Several of them were whispering to him, turning their faces to ensure that nobody could read their lips. An older man, his hair graying, was saying that everything had been taken care of. The man to his left, slightly younger than the first, but more muscular and balding, told him not to worry. He could assure him that the bastard wouldn't be causing him any trouble today, then he laughed. The man in the middle just gave a little grin, barely a noticeable tweak of the corner of his mouth, and said that they were betting their lives on it. The other two just grimaced and nodded.

I looked at Edward, and he looked at me. There was a frown on his face, and his eyes followed the two men as they walked past us and into the courtroom. "What were they thinking?" I asked him as soon as the door swung shut.

"Nothing specific, but when they were speaking about their problem, their minds both went to them taking a man at gunpoint and beating him. They have two others holding him at some cabin in the woods. They have to keep him from testifying. I'm pretty sure that they're thinking of Charlie."

I looked at my watch, and Charlie was five minutes late. He was never late, especially without calling. I knew that I should have stayed with him last night. "What was the younger guy's name? Did you pick it up from their thoughts?"

"No, they never said any of their names. What are you planning to do?"

"You just go to the car. I'm going to go in there and get that young guy to follow me outside. Once we get him in the car, we can convince him to let us know where they are holding Charlie. Then we can go get him."

"Bella, I don't think that is such a good idea. You might be stepping into trouble."

"What are they going to do? Shoot me? Now go, or don't go, but I'm going to rescue my dad." I stepped into the courtroom and took a second to look around. I saw the man who was in the middle of the crowd sitting up at the table in front of the bar separating the room into the actual court and the spectator section. There was an older man sitting with him. I presumed that he was the guy's lawyer. The other men, four in all, were sitting in the first row of seats behind him. The guy that I was looking for was on the end by the wall. I walked up the wall until I got even with the young guy. I tried to look as young and innocent as I could. "Hi," I said. He looked at me and a big grin spread over his face.

"Well, hi to you, too," he said, his voice smooth and soft. If I didn't already know that he was a creep, I'd have thought that he was a nice guy.

"I hope that you can help me. I've been looking all over this building for a strong looking man who might be willing to help me. I've got a flat tire, and I don't know how to change it. Would you please help me? I'm going to be so late to school," I said, laying it on as thick as I could, putting my hands on his right arm.

The other guys on the row started oohing, and one of them called out, "She's jail bait, Ace, don't do it," while another one said, "Can I tap that after you finish with it?"

"Please, I really don't have anyone else that I can ask," I begged.

He looked at his boss who looked at him, then at me, then back at him. "Go ahead, Ace. After all, we want to be known for our community service, don't we?"

"Yes, sir, Mr. Baker, sir. I'm always willing to help our ladies in need." He got up and followed me out of the courthouse. When we left the building, I led him to our car. Edward was in the driver's seat. I took Ace by the hand. "What is going on? I thought that you had a flat tire?"

"Just a little white lie, Ace. I'd like for you to come with us. Please get into the car." He started to go for his gun, but I held onto his hand and squeezed just a little bit harder, well, truthfully, a lot harder. I heard several of his bones crunch. He started to scream, but I put my other hand across his mouth. "Not a sound, Ace, or I'll have to break something else." He cut off the scream, and I quickly removed my hand from his mouth. "Now, please, get into the car." He got into the backseat, and I crawled in after him.

"What's this all about?" Ace asked, holding his broken hand with his other.

"Well, Ace, you see, I want to know what you did with the guy that you took last night."

"I don't know what you mean."

"Oh, Ace, please don't insult me. I heard you telling Mr. Baker that his problem wouldn't be bothering him today. I know who your little problem is, and now, I want to know where he is."

"I'm afraid that I can't tell you what you want to know. My life is too valuable to me, sweetheart. I don't think that you can do anything compared to what Mr. Baker is capable of."

"Don't count on it, Ace." I reached into his jacket and removed his gun.

"Left ankle, love," Edward said. I reached down to his left ankle and removed another, smaller gun. "Right front pants pocket, love." I reached into his right front pants pocket and removed a switchblade.

"How are you two doing that?" Ace asked. Edward continued making random turns in the country. I knew that he was reading Ace's mind, and neither one of us was going to bring it up and risk alerting Ace to the fact that he was leading us to their hideout.

"My husband is a magician, and I'm his assistant. You ought to see him pull a rabbit out of his hat," I said, laughing. Then I took off Ace's tie and made a gag out of it. I didn't want him to warn his buddies when we arrived at their cabin. I also searched his remaining pockets and removed his cell phone. I pocketed it, knowing that the entries in it would come in helpful later.

As we were driving, I had been thinking about what I wanted to do with these men who had dared to touch my father. I knew that I could easily wipe them off of the planet, but I kept coming back to the fact that Edward was so proud of the fact that I hadn't killed anyone. I wanted so badly to take my revenge on these hoodlums who thought that they could bypass the laws and do whatever they wanted to innocent people such as my dad and Mrs. Baker, but I knew that I couldn't let my Edward down that way. I would have to keep my emotions under control for once in my vampire life. Luckily, Ace had given me an out. He told me that Mr. Baker would take care of my problem for me.

Soon, Edward made another turn and pulled off of the road. In vampire volume, he told me that the hideout was just over the next hill and around the next two curves. He went into the forest for a little while, and when he came back, he had several lengths of vines. He braided them into stronger lengths, then braided those into even stronger lengths. Then, after scouting the area for the sturdiest tree which was completely out of sight from any of the roads surrounding it, Edward and I hoisted Ace to the top third of the tree and tied him securely to the trunk, spread eagle. None of his limbs were making contact with any of the branches. His upper limbs were suspended from overhanging branches with the loop that was holding him in place wrapped around the trunk and tied off to a limb on the opposite side of the tree. It was held in place by a forked branch so that he couldn't slip it back towards him giving him extra room to use to escape with. His legs were spread as far apart as we could get them, and they were tied off to branches that were also on the opposite side of the tree. They, too, were secured by forked limbs to prevent the "rope" from slipping and giving him extra room to move. He was still gagged, though we made sure that he had a clear nasal passageway.

"I'm going to give you one more chance to tell me exactly who is in the cabin and if there are any traps or passwords that we are going to need to get in," Edward said.

"It doesn't matter if he talks or not. He isn't getting out of this tree until his bones fall out of his rotting skin," I said. "Nobody messes with my father." I took one more look at the scum that was Ace, then I jumped out of the tree. I landed on the ground and took off running at vampire speed towards the cabin that Edward had told me was just over the hill and around the next two curves. It took me about thirty seconds to approach the cabin.

I stopped at the edge of the forest to listen to what was going on inside. I heard two voices. They were talking about a t.v. program that they were watching. It was obvious that they weren't paying attention to what was going on around them. As I was about to break down the front door, I felt a hand grab my arm. Edward put his finger to his lips, and taking me around to a window, he pointed to a third man who was sitting beside the front door with a machine gun pointed at Charlie who was tied to a chair in the middle of the room facing the front door. There was blood in his hair, but I couldn't see any other injuries. My anger rose, and I clenched my fists. I circled the house, and in the back, I spotted an upstairs window. I looked at Edward and said, "When I break that window, I'm going to go in through the front door. I'm going to take out the ones who are threatening Charlie. I want you to get him out of here and to safety. Will you do that for me?"

"Bella, why don't you go get Charlie out and let me take care of the bad guys?"

"Because they're mine. They screwed with the wrong bitch when they touched my father. Are you going to help me or not?"

"Yes, Bella, love. You know that I'll help you. What are you going to do with them?"

"I don't really know, yet. I suspect that I'll probably leave them for Mr. Baker to deal with. He seems like such a nice employer. Then, I'm going to get the rest of them." I turned and picked up a rock that was lying off to the side of the tree. I threw it through the window, the crash extrememly loud in the silence of the forest. The men in the room had started to move towards the stairs as I burst through the front door. I looked to my right, and the cretin who had his machine gun pointed at Charlie was in the process of getting out of his chair and had lowered his gun as he leaned over to push off. I reached down and had the gun out of his hands before he had finished the motions required to stand. The two men who had been sitting on the couch found themselves on the floor as I lifted the couch with them on it and threw it against the wall pinning the third man to his chair.

Stunned, the three thugs began reaching for guns which I happily relieved them of as soon as I saw their hands moving. I took great pleasure in using my strength to completely demolish their weapons before handing them back to their previous owners. Then, out of nowhere, I heard shots ring out from behind me. I felt something warm tap me on the back, and I thought that Edward was trying to get my attention. I turned around to see what he wanted, and instead of Edward, I saw a fourth bad guy, this one with a gun pointed at me. I ran over to him and relieved him of his weapon before he could even blink. Then, when he did blink and realized that I was no longer standing near the wall or lying on the floor, I picked him up by his collar and walked him over to where his friends were lying against the wall. I tossed him onto the pile after taking care of his weapon and handing it back to him.

By this time, my breathing was hard and fast. I had several thoughts running through my mind at the same time. I wanted to tear each of them limb from limb. I wanted to rip them to shreds, tear out their insides, piece by piece, until I finally reached their hearts. How dare they put my father at risk? Didn't they know who they were dealing with?

One of them started to get up from the pile. He pulled a knife from his sock and was brandishing it at me, for the lack of a better term. "Little girlie, you don't know who you are fucking with. You are in a world of trouble," he said as he tried to maneuver around me.

"Oh, really. It would appear that you don't know who you are fucking with. You made a big mistake. You took the wrong guy. Now you, and everyone that you are associated with are going to pay. And by pay, I mean the ultimate price."

He made a lunge at me which I easily side stepped. I turned, and grabbing his arm with the knife in his hand, I stabbed the knife into his right thigh, burying it deeply into the bone. My movement, too fast for the human eye to see, made it appear that he had lunged at me, missed, and he stabbed himself with his own knife. Instead of taking another step, he fell to the floor in agony.

"Next?" I questioned the remaining men. The three of them had strange looks on their faces, mixtures that hovered between fury and fear. "Who wants to teach this little girlie the next lesson?"

The two of them who were on the couch when I stormed the room decided that it was a good time to make their move. I saw them as they slyly looked at each other, and as they slowly reached for hidden weapons, I moved into the kitchen of the house. I heard them as they sprang to their feet and leaped over the couch. I stood still as the first one attempted to stab me in the back. When the blade bent against my back, he let it fall to the ground. I slowly turned towards him and found him staring at me with his mouth agape. At that point, I felt another warm tap, this one against my forehead. I looked at the second guy who was standing about half-way between me and the wall. As my eyes met his, he dropped the pistol and turned towards the door that I had broken down and ran for it. I turned back to the kitchen and picked up three more chairs which I pulled into the larger room. I went to the man who had the knife in his leg. I picked him up and tied him to the chair with the rope that he had tied Charlie with.

Looking around, I found more rope which I placed on the other chairs. Then I sprinted out of the house to re-capture the others. I followed their scents into the surrounding forest. For some reason, they must have felt safer together. I caught up with them within five seconds. They had hidden in a relatively well camouflaged cave which was completely dark. Of course I could see them well. They were huddled together in a corner, well away from the entrance. Silently, I moved so that I was behind them. When I figured that they were finally beginning to calm down, I reached out and put my hand on the one in the middle of the huddle, the one who had tried to stab me in the back and ended up with a bent knife. He screamed like a little girl and jumped from where he was sitting.

"You didn't really think that I couldn't follow you, did you? You didn't think that I could follow the fear in your scent? Who are you more scared of, me or Mr. Baker? I could take your life with a snap of my fingers. I could follow your scent all of the way into Canada, through the rain or the snow or even a river. I could hear your softest whisper from five miles away. However, instead of my killing you, I think that I'm going to leave that pleasure to Mr. Baker. What do you think that he is going to do to you when he sees my father show up in that courtroom today with all of the evidence that his wife needs to take him for everything that he has?"

I took the hands of the one in the middle and pulled him around so that he was on my back. "Close your eyes," I said to him as I started sprinting back to the cabin. The trip took no more than six or seven seconds, and then I was tying him to the chair next to his associate. He groaned and looked positively green. I just shook my head. "I told you to shut your eyes," I told him with a smirk. Then I turned and was gone, back to the cave, arriving in time to see the other two about ten feet away from the entrance.

Taking two or three more steps, I was in front of them. I placed my hand on the forehead of the one who had taken a shot at me. "I guess that you figured out that bullets bounce off of me. Is there anything else that you'd like to try to kill me with?" The other hoodlum realized that he wasn't the subject of my interest and started to back away from me. I looked at him and said. "You can try to run. Don't worry, though. I'll find you." Then I turned my attention back to the man that I had by the forehead. He had grabbed my arm with both of his and was trying to loosen my grip. He wasn't having any success.

"What are you?" the villain whispered.

"Now, that is a good question. I am a female," I answered. "I'm surprised that you don't know the difference between a male and a female. Most humans figure that out by the time that they are four years old."

"Humans. You said humans. Are you human?" he asked.

"Hmmm. Another good question. No, I'm not a human any longer. I used to be a human, though," I told him. "I don't really remember those days, though."

"What are you then?" he asked me again.

"I don't think that we're allowed to tell you humans what we are. That would be violating our code of secrecy. I think that it is enough for you to know that I'm not human any more. I also think that it would be good for you to know that I could kill you in a split second with the snap of my fingers. However, I choose not to do that at this moment. I think that I want for you to live so that Mr. Baker will come and find the four of you. I think that I want you alive so that you can tell Mr. Baker that I will be coming for the rest of his men. Then, once I have taken care of the rest of his men, I will be coming after him. Everybody who has anything to do with Mr. Baker is going to pay for what he has done to my father."

"So, that man that Mr. Baker had us take, he isn't human, either?" the scumbag asked me.

"Oh, you hit him. You saw him bleed. You know that he is a human," I told him as I took him by the hands and threw him onto my back and reminded him to close his eyes. I sprinted back to the cabin where I tied him up in the third chair. "I guess that the three of you are going to have a lot to talk about while I track down your last partner."

They looked at each other, then they looked at me. I winked at the third man, then I raced back out of the cabin. I heard him telling the others what I'd told him. They laughed at him until he asked them to explain the things that I'd done, how bullets had bounced off of me and how knife blades had bent when they hit my skin. Things got quiet after that.

I followed the scent of the fourth asshole for about twenty yards. He had climbed a tree and was making an effort to hide in the branches. I quickly scaled the tree, coming up behind him. As I surrounded his body, pushing him into the tree, he pushed backwards, making me lose my grip on the branches . I fell half way to the ground before I was able to catch a branch and swing myself back up. I landed on a branch facing him. "That was a good try, but did you think that you'd actually hurt me if you knocked me out of this tree?" The look on his face, one of disappointment and broken hope told me what his silence only confirmed. "You think that if I fell out of this tree, I'd get hurt. Well, my final felon, I can't let you go through life thinking that you had a shot to hurt me, and I just got a lucky break. I'll tell you what. I'll move over by you, and when I get there, I'll let you push me out of the tree. I won't even try to break my fall. How does that strike you? Does that sound fair? Then, when I come back up here to claim my final prize, you'll cooperate with me, won't you?" I moved over to stand on the branch behind him. I held my hands beside my body, then I nodded to him. He pushed me, and I allowed myself to fall to the ground. I landed on my back. Then I stood up and quickly climbed the tree for the third time. When I reached him, he was shaking his head in disbelief. "Hi, honey, I'm home," I said as I took him by the arms and threw him onto my back. "I'd advise you to hold on. I don't think that you'd bounce as well as I do."

I started going from treetop to treetop until I reached a tree that was adjacent to the tree that was holding Ace. I reached around and pulled hoodlum number four in front of me so that he could grab a hold of the tree trunk. "Hey, Ace," I called out. Ace looked over to where we were perched in the tree. Still gagged, he couldn't do anything but look at us, pleading with his eyes. I turned to look at number four and said, "You may want to remember that he is here. I don't have any plans to return for him, and unfortunately, he can't really call out for help." Then I reached for number four's arms and again pulled him onto my back and began jumping from treetop to treetop until we were back at the cabin. I jumped to the ground and took him to the remaining chair where I tied him down.

"I guess that the four of you have a lot to talk about. I will be leaving you now. Have a good chat." I turned and ran back to the car. Edward looked at me and nodded.

"You did a really good job, love. Now, let's get Charlie back to town," he said.

I looked at Charlie for the first time, and he was mauled for lack of a better term. He had cuts over both eyes; his eyes were both blackened and swollen almost shut; he had a severe laceration on his lower lip; his nose was broken; and he had lost a few teeth.

"Daddy, I'm so sorry that I let this happen to you," I said.

"Bells, you did no such thing. It was my fault. I should have listened to your instincts. They took the videos. Can you get your copies? I need to get to the courthouse," Charlie whispered.

"Sure thing, Charlie," Edward said, turning the car around and heading towards our home at speeds that would make many green. He kept glancing at me, silently asking if I was alright. All that I could do was nod my head.

"What did you do with those perpetrators?" Charlie asked.

"I took care of them, Dad. They won't be coming after you again."

"What do you mean, 'took care of them,' Bella? What did you do to them? Did you tie them up for the police?"

"Well, they're all tied up, but I don't think that the police are going to get to them first. I think that Mr. Baker is going to be the one who is going to find them."

"Bella, you know that we should turn them over to the police. That is the right thing to do."

"Dad, sometimes people don't deserve to have people be nice to them. Sometimes they do things to the wrong people. Sometimes they even piss off vampires. They are very lucky to still be alive, Dad. Maybe the next time that you decide to get yourself kidnapped I'll be calm enough to allow the police to handle the punishment of the assholes who hurt you, but this time, just be glad that they are still alive for Mr. Baker to tend to them."

"Edward, can't you talk some sense into her?"

"Charlie, I'm sorry, but this time I'm so proud of Bella for controlling her emotions that if she left them for Mr. Baker to attend to, I'm supporting her all of the way. Right now, I'm just concentrating on getting you home so that we can get that disk and get you cleaned up."

We drove for several more minutes, and before I knew it, we were pulling into our driveway. Edward started to get out of the car to go in and get the disk, but then he just settled back in. Before I could ask him why, Jasper was walking out of the house with the disk in hand, and Alice was following close behind him with clean rags and ice packs. I could tell that Jasper was holding his breath as he approached the car. He handed the disk to Charlie as Alice came up and started working on Charlie's face. She started wiping the dried blood from his face. Then she handed him the ice packs to put against his eyes.

"Thank you, guys. I really appreciate what you are doing to help Charlie," I told both of them.

"Move over," Jasper said, and when I did, he and Alice got into the car with us. "Ali saw you storming the cabin and taking on those four thugs. I was hoping to get to help, but she said that you took care of everything all by yourself. She wasn't sure how the rest of the day was going to go, so we both decided that we wanted to be there for Charlie, too, just in case."

"Really, do you think that I need four vampire body guards?" Charlie asked.

"No, any one of us would do fine, but the four of us will rock the house," Alice said. "Like our Bella told one of those idiots, everyone who has anything to do with Mr. Baker is going to pay."

We pulled into a parking place outside of the courthouse ten minutes later. We turned many heads as we walked up the steps into the courthouse. The guard at the metal detector took one look at Charlie's face and wanted to call an ambulance for him. Charlie waved him off, and we all passed through and into the elevator. As the doors opened onto the second floor, the four of us surrounded Charlie. Edward and Jasper took positions in front of him, and Alice and I each took one of his hands and walked beside him. There were two rather large men sitting on a bench outside of the courtroom who stood when we walked out of the elevator. Ignoring them, we went up to the courtroom door and knocked. Before anyone had a chance to answer the door, the two men had moved in behind us. Edward and Jasper had allowed Charlie, Alice and I to move through to the front while they took up positions behind us, so, when one of the large men said, "Excuse me," it was Edward who turned around.

"Yes sir, how may I help you?" Edward responded to the man.

"If you kids know what is good for you, you'll get the hell out of here, NOW!" the man said quietly, emphasizing the last word.

"I'm sorry, but we're here to support my father-in-law who is scheduled to testify in this court hearing. I'm afraid that it's you who is going to have to leave."

"You obviously don't understand, young man. Let me see if this explains things," the man said as he reached inside of his jacket pocket and pulled out a gun which he covertly pointed at Edward.

Jasper reached for the gun as the man finished his statement and within a split second had it disabled and back in the thug's pocket. "I'm sorry sir, but what was it that is going to explain things to us?" he asked with a classic Jasper smirk on his face. "Why don't you accompany me to the men's room, and we'll have a little talk, just you and me." Jasper took him by the hand, and applying just the right amount of pressure to his wrist, he walked the man to the men's room. In no time, Jasper had re-joined the group.

In the meantime, the other thug had pulled his gun on Edward as well. Edward had disabled it and replaced it in the man's jacket. He was in the process of walking him to join his friend in the men's room when the bailiff finally answered the door to the courtroom. Charlie asked him to inform Mrs. Baker's attorney that he had arrived and was waiting in the hallway to be called to testify. The bailiff told him that he would do so, and that he had already been called once, so he knew that they were waiting on him.

Edward was back before the bailiff had time to deliver the message, so we all took the seats that were occupied by the hoodlums. Within five minutes, the bailiff was back at the courtroom doors to announce that the court was calling Charles Swan to the stand. We all got up to enter the courtroom. I walked with Charlie to the railing that separated the room, then I released him to walk the rest of the way on his own. Jasper had already given him the disk in the hallway. The bailiff assisted Charlie the rest of the way to the witness chair. The whole time, Mr. Baker's face was beet red. He was fuming, and under his breath he was telling his lawyer that Charlie would sink him. When his lawyer said that he thought that Mr. Baker had taken care of Charlie, Mr. Baker looked around at the men in the front row of the spectator section, then whispering to his lawyer again, he said that he did, too. The men in the front row were almost ashen. One of them was visibly shaking.

Charlie remained standing, leaning on the witness chair for support, while the bailiff said, "Raise your right hand. Do you swear or affirm that the testimony you are about to give is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?"

Charlie, holding his head up high and looking straight into Mr. Baker's eyes, said, "I do," then, taking his time, he sat down.

"Mr. Swan, are you able to continue? Do you need for me to send for medical attention?" Judge Sander asked Charlie.

"No, sir. I can continue," Charlie said.

"Just let me know at any time if you need a break," Judge Sander told him.

"Yes sir. I will."

"Your witness, Mr. Herrington," the judge said.

"Would you please state your name and occupation for the record," her attorney asked.

"Charles Swan. I'm a private investigator."

"And what is the address of your office?"

"Swan's Investigative Services at 320 N Albany Street."

"And that's here in Ithaca?"

"Yes sir."

"And how long have you been in business?"

"About two weeks now."

"What is your background?"  
"I used to be the police chief of a small town in Alaska, a town called Denali, for the past sixteen years. Before becoming Chief, I served on the force for another ten."

"And why did you become a private investigator at this time?"

"I applied at the local police department and county sheriff's department, but there weren't any positions available. With my vast experience in surveillance and investigative techniques, I thought that private investigative services would be an appropriate field to invest my time while I was here."

"I see. And did it take you long to get your first client?"

"No, not at all. In fact, the day that I hung the sign over my door, she walked in. Unfortunately, I didn't have my investigative license that day."

"What did you do?"

"I told her that my license hadn't arrived so she couldn't hire me. I asked her to give me her name and number, and if she hadn't found someone else to help her by the time that I received my license, I would call her back, and we could talk at that time."

"And is that what happened?"

"Yes, it is. I received my license on this past Friday afternoon, and I immediately called her at the number that she left me. We agreed to meet later that afternoon, and we discussed her case. She hired me on the spot."

"What were your instructions?"

"I was instructed to follow her husband, Mr. Stanley Baker. I was to film his activities without his knowing about it, and I was to make those films available to Mrs. Baker and you, her attorney, by today's date."

"Were there any specific activities that Mrs. Baker suspected Mr. Baker of participating in?"

"Objection! Your Honor, that calls for Mrs. Baker's speculation as well as for hearsay from this witness," Mr. Baker's lawyer interrupted.

"Objection sustained," Judge Sander replied.

"I'll rephrase, Your Honor. Were there any specific situations that Mrs. Baker asked you to attempt to catch Mr. Baker participating in?"

"Objection, Your Honor! Relevancy," Mr. Baker's attorney blurted out.

"Overruled. You may answer the question."

"Yes, she asked for me to follow him and to specifically video him with any other women that he made contact with. I was to video any and all interactions that they had together."

"And did you observe Mr. Baker with any other women during your surveillance of him?"

"Objection, Your Honor! It hasn't been established that this man participated in any surveillance of my client at all."

"Sustained."

"Mr. Swan," Mr. Harrington began after taking a deep breath and letting it out. "did you at any time in the employ of Mrs. Baker perform any surveillance of Mr. Baker?"

"Yes sir. I immediately gathered my equipment that I would need in order to video Mr. Baker after Mrs. Baker left my office. Then I made my way to his office at 107 West State Street. I placed him under surveillance beginning at four twenty-two on the afternoon of November thirteenth."

"Where did he go from there?"

"He left the premises with two other men at six oh three that evening. One of the men got into the driver's seat of a black 2009 Mercedes Benz S-class, and the other man and Mr. Baker got into the back seat. They drove to Olivia Restaurant where Mr. Baker met a woman. The two of them had dinner together, frequently holding hands or touching each other in some fashion."

"Objection, Your Honor! This testimony is non-specific and inflammatory to my client."

"I'll over-rule the objection, but Mr. Swan, you need to be as specific as possible with your testimony."

"Yes, Your Honor. What I meant to say was that Mr. Baker and the woman had at least one part of their body in contact with the other's body during most, if not all of the meal. For instance, if they weren't holding hands, she would be running her foot up and down Mr. Baker's thigh under the table. In fact, when she rose from the table to go to the Ladies' Room, Mr. Baker rose as well and gave her a quick kiss on the lips."

"Objection, Your Honor! What proof do we have of these allegations? Mr. Swan has admitted that he has been hired exclusively for the intent purposes of damaging the reputation of Mr. Baker. I submit that his opinion has been bought by Mrs. Baker."

"Mr. Tart, do you have any evidence that you can produce that supports the allegations that Mr. Swan is committing perjury?"

"No, Your Honor."

"Then the objection is over-ruled. You may continue Mr. Swan."

"They completed dinner at eight seventeen, then they both entered the car. I followed them to 290 Forest Home Drive where Mr. Baker, the woman, and the man in the back seat got out of the car. Mr. Baker and the woman entered the house while the man with Mr. Baker took a position in front of the door and remained there until Mr. Baker left the house at six thirty the next morning, the fourteenth of November. I followed him to the residence that he shares with Mrs. Baker, at which he arrived at seven o'clock that morning."

"And did you observe any further actions between Mr. Baker and the woman whom he met that evening?"

All of a sudden, Edward stood up and walked rather quickly to the other side of the room, taking a seat behind one of the three hoods in the front row behind Mr. Baker. Jasper, Alice, and I quickly followed him. In vampire volume, Edward told us that the man in the middle was getting ready to shoot Charlie. I immediately stood up and walked around to the front row and sat in the lap of the man in the middle. His hand was already on the gun in his front coat pocket. I took his arm that was holding the gun and squeezed it with an immense amount of pressure. He immediately let go of the gun and gasped with the pain. I leaned in and said in a whisper that only he, and my family could hear, "I wouldn't touch that again or I will snap your arm into a zillion pieces, just like Humpty Dumpty was when all the King's men were trying to put him back together. Now get up and walk with me outside."

"Um, Your Honor, I think that I need a little break, if it is okay with you. I'm feeling a little bit dizzy," Charlie said, his eyes on the four of us.

"That is fine, Mr. Swan. Take all of the time that you need. We will be in recess for the next ten minutes. If you need more time than that, just let Mr. Harrington know," Judge Sander said.

"All rise," the bailiff said, and we all rose as Judge Sander left the room. Alice raced to Charlie, shielding him with her body should anyone else get any stupid ideas while Jasper, Edward, and I escorted Mr. Baker's remaining thugs out into the hallway.

Once they were out of the courtroom, the three of us "walked" them to the end of the hallway. There was a room off of the hallway that was empty. The door leading into the room was locked, but Jasper took care of it with a flick of his wrist, and before anyone could blink, we were inside the room with the door closed again. I handed my thug off to Edward who removed his weapons and tossed them into a corner pile that he had started with his thug's weapons. Then handing off one of them to Jasper, he removed all of the third thug's weapons and tossed them into the pile as well. It distracted me for a moment when I saw how many weapons the three of them had managed to "sneak" past the guard and the metal detector.

When Edward cleared his throat, my attention returned at once to the situation at hand. I turned back to my task. I walked to the window at the far side of the room. It was facing another building approximately fifteen feet away from us. The blinds in the windows of the other building were drawn. No one could see this end of the building that we were in unless they were walking down the alleyway between the two buildings. I lifted the window. It gave a soft squeal, but it wasn't enough to draw attention to our activities. I looked up, and the roof was only eight or so feet above us. I climbed out of the window and made my way onto the roof. I walked around the edges, then I walked to the center of the roof. There were two industrial sized air conditioning units but nothing more. There was no way onto the roof of the building except by ladder.

I went back to the edge of the roof where our open window was. I scaled back down the wall and back into the room. "The roof is perfect. There isn't any way down. There are only two air conditioning units up there. Once we get them settled, no one will be able to find them." I grabbed my guy, and throwing him onto my back, I went back out of the window. I climbed back onto the roof and tossed him towards the middle. Then I walked over to him. I reached for him, and he shied away from me. I grabbed him by the collar of his suit jacket and pulled it off of him. Then I proceeded to tear it into strips which I further used to tie him up and gag him with. While I was working on him, Jasper and Edward had joined me on the roof with their goons. They were in the process of binding them together and to my bad guy when I went back down into the room. I waited on them to rejoin me, and together, we re-entered the hallway and made our way back to the courtroom passing by Mr. Baker and his attorney who were obviously looking for his hired henchmen. I couldn't resist leaning over and whispering to Mr. Baker, "They won't be coming back. Soon enough word will get out that working for you is bad business. Nobody will work for you. Nobody will protect you. Then, I'll be coming for you."

When we walked back into the courtroom, Alice was sitting with Charlie and holding his hand. She took one look at us and smiled. I walked over to my dad and leaned over to give him a hug. "What did you do with those men, Bells?" he whispered in my ear.

"We took them on an adventurous ride. They're tied up at the moment and don't have the time to spend listening to the rest of your testimony, I'm afraid. Mr. Baker is going to have to go it without his audience for the time being," I whispered back to my dad, trying to reassure him that he was safe to go back on the witness stand.

"All rise. The Honorable Judge Sander presiding," the bailiff announced.

We all stood while Judge Sander took his seat at the head of the courtroom.

"Mr. Jeffries, would you please inform Mr. Baker and Mr. Tart now that we have re-convened."

"Yes sir." The bailiff walked into the hall and informed them that court was back in session. Mr. Baker and Mr. Tart walked back into the courtroom, their eyes glued to mine the entire time as they took their seats.

"I'm sorry that we're late, Your Honor. Some associates of Mr. Bakers' seem to have gone missing. We were trying to contact them," Mr. Tart said.

"Try to be on time in the future, Mr. Tart. You know that I hate tardiness," Judge Sander said.

"Yes sir."

"Mr. Swan, do you feel able to go on?"

"Yes sir. I'm feeling better now."

"Then you may re-take the witness stand. Court is back in session. You are still under oath. Proceed Mr. Harrington."

"Do you remember the last question, Mr. Swan?"

"Yes sir. You asked me if I had observed anything else going on between Mr. Baker and the woman. I was about to answer that I had. I found a window that opened onto the living area. They started the evening on the couch. They began kissing, initially the kisses were chaste, just involving the mouth, but it didn't take long before they became much more intimate. He began to kiss her on her neck and shoulders, and before long, he progressed to kissing her on her upper chest including her cleavage which was considerable. During this time, he also used his hands to caress her breasts."

"And what was the woman doing while this was going on?"

"She was moaning his name and running her fingers through his hair. When he started to lift her shirt, she stopped him and told him that she would rather go into the bedroom. She was afraid that their son would wake up and walk in on them."

"Wait a second, Mr. Swan. Did you just say 'their son?'"

"Objection, Your Honor! Hearsay!"

"Sustained. Exception due to Reputation Concerning Personal or Family History obviously applies here, Mr. Tart. Mr. Swan, you may answer."

"Yes sir. The woman in question definitely said that she was afraid that their son would catch them and that she would rather go into their bedroom. She got up from the couch and pulled Mr. Baker up with her. Then they went into a bedroom. I was able to move to another window and observe their activities."

"What further activities did they participate in that evening?"

"As soon as they entered the room, they undressed each other. They went to the bed where the woman in question pulled some scarves out of a nightstand drawer. She proceeded to tie Mr. Baker's hands to the headboard and his feet to the baseboard so that he was spread eagle on the bed. She then went to a bureau and took out some kind of whip looking thing and began hitting Mr. Baker with it. After that, she performed oral sex on Mr. Baker. Then, she..." Charlie looked down at his feet and paused. I glanced at Mr. Baker. His face was beet red, and he was looking at Charlie with hate in his eyes.

"Did something else happen that night, Mr. Swan?" Mr. Harrington asked.

"Yes sir. I'm sorry. What happened next isn't something that I've ever seen before, and I'm a little embarrassed talking about it. After she completed performing oral sex on Mr. Baker, the woman left the bed and went to the bureau again. She picked up a sex toy and a bottle of a gel like substance. She took them back to the bed. She untied Mr. Baker's legs, and then she attached the toy around her waist. She opened the gel and applied some to the toy, and then she took his legs and pushed them up against his chest. She put some more of the gel on his anus, and then she … entered him with the toy. She performed anal sex on him until he orgasmed again."

"Objection, Your Honor!"

"On what grounds?"

"I don't know. I just object," Mr. Tart said, putting his head into his hands on the defendant's table.

"Over-ruled."

"What happened next, Mr. Swan?"

"Mr. Baker and the woman went into the attached room together from ten eleven until ten twenty-seven. When they came back into the bedroom, they both had towels wrapped around their bodies, and their hair was wet. They both got into bed, and Mr. Baker had intercourse with the woman."

"Did he use any form of protection during intercourse?"

"He did not use a condom during intercourse."

"What else happened?"

"They went to sleep. Mr. Baker woke up at six twenty two the following morning. He got out of bed and got dressed. Then he kissed the woman and left her home and returned to the home that he shares with Mrs. Baker."

"Did you observe Mr. Baker at any other time?"

"Yes sir. I continued my surveillance of Mr. Baker throughout Saturday, November the fourteenth. At seven forty seven that evening, he and the same two men left the residence that he shares with Mrs. Baker and went back to Olivia Restaurant. He met with another woman, a different one than the evening before. They had dinner, and again, they touched each other during the meal. They would hold hands, or he would kiss her hand. They weren't as intimate as Mr. Baker and the first woman were. When they were finished with dinner, they both got into his car along with the man who had accompanied him into the restaurant and had stood by the front door the entire time that they were eating. They arrived at 1112 Glenside Road at nine ten that evening, and the two of them went inside while the man from the backseat stayed by the front door. Mr. Baker left the home at five forty the next morning, Sunday, November the fifteenth."

"Did you have any opportunity to observe them while they were inside the home?"

"Yes sir. This home was a two story home. Initially, they went into a living room of sorts on the lower level. They settled on the couch and talked for approximately thirty minutes. After that, Mr. Baker began to kiss the woman. Initially, she seemed to want to pull away from him, but eventually, she responded to his kisses. Again, he began to spread his kisses around her body, her neck, her chest, her cleavage. Then, he reached under her blouse. She responded to what he was doing by lying back on the couch. He then unbuttoned her blouse and took it off of her. He followed that by taking off her brassiere. When he leaned over her to continue kissing her breasts, she removed his shirt. He then lifted her skirt and began touching her between her legs. She began writhing on the couch, and he soon brought her to orgasm."

"Objection, Your Honor. Calls for speculation."

"Your Honor, I'm sure that Mr. Swan is familiar with the sights and sounds that a woman makes during an orgasm," Mr. Harrington broke in.

"Mr. Swan, are you familiar with a woman's orgasm?"

I don't think that Charlie has ever blushed any deeper red than he did at that time. Alice couldn't help but to giggle. Charlie looked up at her, and though I didn't believe it was possible, he blushed even more. "Yes, Your Honor. I am familiar with a woman's orgasm."

"Objection over-ruled. You may continue Mr. Swan."

"After he brought her to orgasm with his fingers, he reached down and unfastened his pants. He lowered them, and then he had intercourse with her."

"And did he use any form of protection during intercourse?"

"He did not use a condom during intercourse with her."

"What happened next?"

"They watched television together until ten o'clock. Then they had intercourse again, without using a condom, and then they went to bed and to sleep. Mr. Baker woke up at five thirty the next morning and got dressed. He left the house at five forty, and he arrived at the house that he shares with Mrs. Baker at six o'clock."

"What did he do then?"

"He ate breakfast and then he went into a room connected to the bedroom. He came back out of the room wrapped in a towel. He stepped into another room, and when he returned to the bedroom, he was dressed in a suit. The next time that I saw him, he was leaving the house with another two men, one of whom drove his car, and the other rode in the backseat with him."

"And where did they take him?"

"To the St. Catherine of Siena Church."

"He and the two men went inside and attended services. They then left the building and went back to the home that he shares with Mrs. Baker."

"What did he do then?"

"He went inside the house and ate lunch with the children and Mrs. Baker. Then he and the children spent the afternoon playing outside. When the sun set, he brought the children back inside and had supper with them. Then he went back into the room off of the bedroom. Again, when he came out, he was wrapped in a towel. He again went back into the other room off of the bedroom, and again when he came out, he was dressed in a suit."

"What did he do next?"

"He went to 200 Aspen Way. He arrived at nine fifty and got out of the car. He then went inside the house."

"And did he meet another woman at this location?"

"No. He didn't."

His attorney sighed with relief, but Mr. Baker looked at Dad with hate clearly written on his face. His hands were clenching and unclenching.

"What did he do at this location?"

"He met with a man."

"And what did they do?"

"They went to the bedroom together and undressed each other. Then the person that Mr. Baker met kissed him. Then he got on his knees and gave Mr. Baker oral sex."

"Did anything else happen?"

"Yes sir. After he was finished with the blow job, they got into bed together. They kissed each other and touched each other in an intimate manner, then Mr. Baker performed anal intercourse on the man. He did not use a condom. This happened one more time during the night, and then they switched places. The man performed anal intercourse on Mr. Baker. He did this twice during the night. He also did not use a condom. Then, Mr. Baker left the house at nine o'clock the next morning. Before he left, I witnessed him giving the other man several bills from his wallet."

"Do you know how much money he gave the man?"

"No, I don't."

"Do you know what the money was for?"

"No, I don't."

"What happened next?"

"The two men with Mr. Baker drove him to his office building. He arrived at nine twenty."

"Did you have any opportunity to have any other surveillance of Mr. Baker at any other time?"

"No sir. After he went into his office building, I stopped my vehicle across the street. I was marking my video with the date and time when the man who was the driver of his car came up to my window and began banging on the glass."

"What did you do?"

"I placed the tape on the seat beside me, and then I turned around to acknowledge the man at the window. I rolled the window down and asked him if there was a problem."

"And what was his response?"

"He wanted to know what I was doing. I told him that I was new in town and that I was trying to find a suitable business location for my daughter to establish her business in. I was videoing any location that seemed suitable."

"And what was his reaction to that information?"

"He informed me that there wasn't any available office space in the building and that the owner would appreciate it if I moved on."

"Objection. Hearsay."

"Sustained."

"How did he react to the fact that you were video taping the building?"

"He became somewhat distraught and indicated that I should move on."

"And what did you do?"

"I went to my office. Once there, I took all of the videos that I had made over the weekend and made two copies. I marked each of them with two forms of identification. The first was on the DVD itself. I introduced myself, stated the date and time, and numbered the copy. The second was written on the outside of the DVD. I then went to the bank and opened a safety deposit box. I left one of the copies of the videos in the safety deposit box. Then I went to my home. I live in the mother-in-law house of some very close friends of mine. I went to them and told them that I was being followed. I asked them to store the other DVD in their safe."

"And did they?"

"Yes sir. They did."

"And what happened next?"

"They wanted me to stay the night with them since I felt as if I was being followed. I refused because I told them that I had work to do to prepare for today's hearing. Then one of them wanted to stay the night with me. I again refused. I left their home and returned to my office. Once there, I locked myself in and began to work on the videos, logging times, and preparing my statements for today. Time got away from me, and sometime after midnight, my door was broken in by four men who attacked me, hitting me on the head with a gun. I lost consciousness and woke up sometime this morning, tied to a chair in a cabin in the forest. I had been beaten sometime since my abduction and couldn't breathe very well. There were two men watching television and one man sitting by the door. The one by the door had a semi-automatic pointed at me."

"Did you recognize any of the men who abducted you?"

"Yes. They were the four men who had accompanied Mr. Baker throughout the weekend."

"Are you certain of this fact?"

"Absolutely certain."

"Now, Mr. Swan, you testified earlier that you made video tapes of Mr. Baker in several compromising situations. Do you have those videos with you today?"

"No sir. The videos were destroyed when I was taken."

"You testified that you made copies of the videos. Do you have a copy of the video with you?"

"Yes sir. This is the second copy of the video. You can see my mark here on the outside of the video. You will also find my introduction of each video, and a concluding statement at the end of the DVD marking it as complete."

"Your Honor, I would like to enter this DVD as Plaintiff's Exhibit Number Fifteen."

"I object, Your Honor. There is nothing to have prevented Mr. Swan from manufacturing this DVD to make my client look bad. It isn't hard to fake videos these days."

"I hope that you aren't speaking from experience, Mr. Tart. I will over-rule the objection and admit the DVD into evidence. You will have ample time to examine the evidence if you want to dispute its authenticity."

Mr. Harrington took the DVD from Charlie's hand and gave it to the Court Reporter who marked it as exhibit fifteen. Then he said, "With the court's permission, we'd like to play this DVD in order to substantiate Mr. Swan's testimony."

"Your Honor, I renew my objection. This DVD has not been authenticated and therefore cannot be used to prove that my client has done anything wrong."

"Over-ruled. You may play the DVD." Mr. Harrington went to the DVD player that was set up under the thirty-six inch television which he pulled out into the open area of the courtroom. He inserted the DVD and pushed the play button on the remote. Then he went back to his table and took a seat beside Mrs. Baker. The first scene was Charlie, labeling the start of the video, just like he said that he did. Then the video began to play each scene, just as Charlie had described them. Mr. Baker was visibly livid. There was sweat pouring off of his face, and he refused to watch the video. It really didn't matter though. The sound from the video was explicit enough.

By the time that the man had gone down on Mr. Baker, Judge Sander said, "I think that we've gotten the picture, Mr. Harrington. I, myself, don't wish to see the rest of that video. If you would pause it for a moment." Mr. Harrington pressed pause. "Mr. Harrington, would you stipulate that the DVD that we're watching accurately depicts the events of Mr. Swan's testimony?"

"Yes, Your Honor. I would so stipulate," Mr. Harrington answered, wiping his brow.

"Mr. Tart, would you stipulate that the DVD accurately depicts Mr. Swan's testimony?"

Mr. Tart was leaning over and whispering desperately to Mr. Baker. Though nobody else in the room could hear what they were saying, he was asking Mr. Baker for permission to accept Judge Sander's request. Mr. Baker told him that he wouldn't admit to having a homosexual affair, and Mr. Tart told him that they had already watched him get blown by a male prostitute. If he refused, the judge would just play the rest of the tape and everyone would get to see him butt fuck the guy and then turn around and take it up the ass. It was his choice. The judge was trying to let him get out of this room with a shred of his dignity intact. Mr. Baker shook his head again, and Mr. Tart asked him if he was positive. Mr. Baker told him to just do as he was told.

Shaking his head, Mr. Tart said, "No Sir, Your Honor. I'm sorry, but we do not so stipulate. It is our belief that the DVD has been manufactured and falsified in order to show my client in bad situations."

Judge Sander took a deep breath, then he looked at Mr. Harrington and said, "Mr. Harrington, I'm afraid that the court has no other choice than to watch the rest of the DVD."

Mr. Harrington pressed the play button, and the room filled with the sight and sounds of Mr. Baker and his male friend engaging in very loud, very vocal sex. When the DVD was finished, Charlie came back on and gave his closing statement just like he said.

Mr. Harrington got back out of his seat and went to the television. He turned it off and removed the DVD from the player. He handed the DVD to the court reporter and pushed the television back into its corner. Then he returned to the middle of the silent courtroom. He looked at Mr. Baker, then he looked at Charlie. Finally he said, "No more questions, Your Honor."

Judge Sander looked at the people in the courtroom and said, "I think that a fifteen minute recess is in order. Mr. Tart, I expect that you and your client will be at your table when we are ready to begin again."

"Yes Sir."  
"All rise." We all stood up as Judge Sander left the bench and returned to his chambers.

I went at once to Charlie to help him down from the witness stand. I walked him to our little group where Edward had the silliest grin on his face. "What's so funny?" I had to ask him.

"Judge Sander called the recess to go rub one out. He's been sporting a hard on since the first video. He really didn't want to see the guy on guy stuff because he thought that he'd loose his boner." Things got semi-quiet for a couple of seconds in the court-room, and sure enough, we could hear him in his office. The four of us tried to stifle a laugh, but after our day, it just wasn't possible. The giggling started with Alice. Then I joined in. Charlie, knowing what we must be hearing, started laughing as well. Then Jasper, feeding off of our laughter, started cackling. He must have sent off waves of happiness mixed with lust, because all of a sudden, I felt like I wanted to attack Edward, and he wrapped me in his arms and was pulling me back against him. The funny thing was, though, that Jasper had aimed the lust at the Judge. All of a sudden, we could hear him moaning and moving faster. One or two of his moans may have been loud enough to have been heard in the courtroom if there hadn't been other conversations going on. Then, he started panting. One more wave of lust hit us, and nobody who was still in the courtroom missed the 'Oh my God' that came from Judge Sander's chambers. That just set off another round of laughter from the five of us.

It must have taken the Judge quite a bit of time to clean up from his orgasm, but it took us just as long to wipe the laughter out of our voices and the grins off of our faces. I thought that I had it under control as I wasn't laughing out loud when Mr. Tart and Mr. Baker returned to their table. However, I don't think that I hid the grin when the bailiff called out "All rise."

I said in vampire volume, "I'd bet he'd rise again if they play that DVD again, but right now I'd bet he's quite floppy."

The others couldn't hold in their giggles as Judge Sander took his seat. He gave them a stern look which only fed the problem. "Order. I'll have order. Mr. Swan, we'll begin again with your cross-examination in the morning at nine o'clock. I would like to recommend to you that you take your friends up on their offer to stay with them tonight. I would also recommend that you seek medical attention for your injuries. Court is adjourned until nine o'clock tomorrow morning."

"All rise. Court stands in recess."

"Why did he let us go so early?" I wondered out loud.

"He jizzed his pants. He wants to go home and change," Edward said. That sent the five of us back into peals of laughter. We walked out of the courtroom surrounding Charlie. There wasn't anyone waiting for us in the hallway or downstairs. We got in the car, and Edward drove us home. Charlie would be staying with us tonight.


	36. Chapter 36

**Disclaimer – Stephenie Meyers owns it all.**

**Chapter 36 - Explosions**

Realistically, Charlie had no doubt that he would be staying with us tonight. When Edward bypassed the turn into his driveway, Charlie didn't even utter a sound. He followed us somewhat meekly into the house. Just as I was about to offer him some ice to put on his bruises, he turned to me and said, "Bells, I'm so sorry to have put you through everything that you went through today. I should've listened to you last night and swallowed my pride and stayed with you guys." I nodded and continued to get the plastic bags of ice from the refrigerator that we never used. "I mean it, Bells. I really am sorry. I underestimated what those thugs would be willing to do to keep me from testifying."

I turned around and handed the ice bags to him. "Charlie, … Dad … , I don't know what I'd have done if I would've lost you today. When I was first turned, I thought that I could walk away from you, leave town, and let you live out the rest of your life with Sue. Then when Alice had the vision of you getting shot, the reality of me losing you hit me like a ton of bricks, and I knew that I couldn't let that happen, and Carlisle and our family agreed to let you in on our secret and allow you to travel with us. I knew, somewhere in the recesses of my mind, that I'd still lose you one day, and when you were missing this morning, I thought that today might be that day. I'm still reeling that you're still with us." He reached out to take me by the hand. "No, Dad, let me get this out," I said, pulling away from him. "I need to tell you how I feel. I need for you to know that I almost broke today when I thought that I'd lost you."

"What are you saying, Bells? You know that one day I'll die, sweetheart. It's meant to be. Everyone dies. It's the natural order of the world, Bells. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad that last night wasn't my time, but one day, my time will come, and when it does, I'll be ready."

"But, don't you see, Charlie? It doesn't have to be that way. You can be changed, just like I was. You can live forever, just like me, and Edward, and Alice, and Jasper, and the rest of the family. You don't have to die, Daddy."

"No, Bells. That life isn't for me. I don't want to live forever." I turned away from him and covered my ears with my fists. He came up behind me and tried to pry my hands away. "Bells, I know that you can still hear me. I've lived a good life. I've helped protect society. I've done a hell of a lot of fishing. Most importantly, I've helped raise a wonderful daughter. If I were to die tomorrow, my life on earth would be complete. Right now, I'm living my life one day at a time, and I'm thankful for each day that I have."

"But Dad, you didn't like it when you thought that I was dead."

"No parent is supposed to out-live their child, Bella. It's an unwritten rule. Now, that's enough talk about dying. I want to know what you four did with all of those hoods today."

"Well, Charlie, we made sure that they were tied up," Edward said.

"Yeah, that's what you said this afternoon. I want to know what you meant by 'tied up.'"

"Exactly what we said. Their hands and feet were tied up. We left tied up at a place of our choosing," Jasper said. "In fact, I think that Edward and I need to go and move them to their hide-out in the woods. That way, Mr. Baker can arrange for them to be released."

"Or whatever he has planned for them," Alice added.

"I think that I need to be along on that trip," I said, looking at Charlie, then looking at Edward who nodded. Charlie started to say something, but I interrupted, "I'm not going to kill them, Charlie, but I plan to teach them a lesson that they won't soon forget. Don't worry, Alice will stay with you and protect you." He finally gave his consent, and the three of us left to take care of the three bad guys.

We decided to run into town, for the exercise. Well, okay, not for the exercise, but we did decide that it would probably be best not to put the hoodlums in our car, just in case they were to leave any microscopic fiber evidence and just in case Mr. Baker were to become even more stupid than he already was and use his acquaintances with the police force to harass us. We figured Alice would be able to warn us of such an occurrence, but why take chances?

When we arrived at the roof of the Courthouse fifteen minutes later, the three men were as we left them. The only difference was that they definitely weren't as cocky. They had managed to position themselves next to each other, whether trying to escape their bonds or huddle to get warm, I couldn't tell. It didn't matter to me either way. The fact remained that they were still our prisoners, and we still had a job to do.

I went to "my guy" and lifted him with ease. He had been dozing, and the sudden movement shocked him awake. Had it not been for the gag in his mouth, I'm quite sure that we'd have been serenaded with a string of curse words. I untied his hands from behind his back and retied them in front of his body. That way I could throw his arms around my neck and carry him without quite as much fear of him falling.

I looked at the others, and they'd mirrored my moves. We were ready to move our prisoners. I looked at Edward, and he nodded. The way was clear. I moved to the edge of the roof with my package on my back and jumped down. As soon as my feet touched the ground, I started the run to the hideout. It didn't take us long to get there. The three of us stopped in the edge of the woods and lowered our packages.

I turned to Edward and asked, "Are the others still inside?"

"No, at least they're not alive inside. I don't want you just barging in, Bella. I don't know if they've set any traps to go off when the doors open or anything like that."

"And traps are going to hurt us? Really, sweetheart, be realistic. We're invincible," I said, and then before he could correct me, I said in vampire volume, "I know that fire can kill us, I just don't want them to know." He and Jasper nodded their acknowledgement, and Jasper left us in a flash. Seconds later, we heard a window open, and I could only assume that it was one on the second floor. Minutes later, Jasper called out the the house was, in fact, trapped and that we needed to use the upstairs window.

It didn't take us long to scale the building with our loads, me carrying one and Edward carrying two. We met Jasper downstairs where he was removing the bodies of the first victims in the war between the Baker Gang and the Vampires of Charlie from the chairs that we'd left them in, and Baker had killed them in. We proceeded to place the second group into the chairs and bind them as we had their predecessors. From there, Jasper went to the trap on the front door. I had no idea what he was doing, and he must have sensed my confusion because he said, "This trap is able to be disarmed from the outside with a certain code. I'm changing the code. That way, when they try to disarm it, it will explode." I nodded in agreement. Once he was done, I looked at the men for the last time.

"You chose the wrong side, gentlemen," and with that sentiment, we left them and returned home to Charlie.

When we approached the house, I was surprised to hear Alice and Charlie talking. He was worried about me, it seemed. They were talking about the time that the family left me, how I had been so lost and the time that it took me to "recover." Edward paused. I knew that I had told him about my counseling and about how Jake had taken me under his wing, but I'd never told him how lost I really was before the time that I'd learned to fake it, and now, he was hearing it first hand from Charlie. He fell to his knees and gripped his hair with his hands. I knelt beside him, taking him in my arms, holding him to me. As Charlie described the zombie that I'd become, not knowing one day from the next, not eating, having nightmares of his leaving when I did sleep, withering away to no more than seventy pounds and eventually having to be tube fed in the hospital, Edward began shaking with sorrow. Jasper looked at me with sorrow in his eyes, and then he looked at Edward with hate. I shook my head and, as discreetly as I could, motioned him away.

I allowed Edward to hear the rest of the story, of my counseling and Jake's intervention, and my trek back into a "normal" existence, then with him still in my arms, I stood us both up and walked us into the woods, out of hearing range from the house. I found a log and sat us both down against it, still holding him in my arms.

"I never intended for you to hear that," I whispered, laying my head on his shoulder.

"I don't deserve to live, much less have you in my life," he said. I knew that he'd be crying if we could.

"Edward, I told you when we first found each other again that I hadn't lived since you left, that I was faking a life. I told you that all my counseling had done was to teach me how to fool the people that I loved into thinking that I was living."

"You never told me how close I came to losing you forever."

"Edward, you never intended to come back to me. The only reason that we're together now is because Alice intervened. You have to admit that. You've already admitted that. Thank God that she did. I also thank God that Victoria changed me. Otherwise I suspect that you would've found any excuse to have delayed my change at Christmas break. I didn't want to live without you. You were my life then, just like you are my life now."

"But my leaving nearly killed you."

"And my cheating nearly killed you. I drove you away. Edward, I can't tell you how sorry I am for what I did to you. Not only did I hurt you, but I tore your family apart. I'm ready to go home, Edward. I'm ready to mend this family. You need your mother and father. I need my new mom and Carlisle. I miss Emmett. Leaving the family wasn't the answer, Edward. I understand the reason; you were hurt that they still blamed Jasper and me for hurting you. But, Edward, when we hurt each other, we need to stay and work things out, not run from them. If you hadn't run six years ago, I wouldn't have gotten so sick. If you and I hadn't run after Jasper and me, maybe the family could've worked everything out without the four of us running away. Edward, we've got to quit running."

"But Carlisle wasn't treating you right, love."

"Carlisle was hurt because I hurt you. He was just striking back at the person who hurt his son."

"If I could have forgiven you, so should he."

"Yes, but when did he see you forgive me? He saw you run for so long in Alaska, then as soon as you got back, we left for several weeks to put our lives back together. He never got a chance to see us in love again. He never got to see for himself that you've forgiven Jasper and me."

"Maybe, let me think about it."

"That's all that I can ask." I leaned in and kissed him. He kissed me back and reached to remove my shirt. "Edward, not now. We've got to get back. I want to be at the house in case they come for Dad." He sighed and returned my shirt to its normal position.

"Let's go. I'd like to be there as well." He stood and pulled me up with him. We ran back to the house, hand in hand. When we stepped over the threshold, Alice was still talking to Charlie. Jasper was sitting on the couch across from the two of them. We walked into the living room and sat down on the couch with me in between Edward and Jasper.

"So, are you ready for their cross examination tomorrow, Dad," I asked, breaking into their conversation.

"Well, Bells, I don't think that they can embarrass me any worse than the prosecutor did. Do you?" Charlie asked.

"He did bring out the bare facts, didn't he, Charlie?" Edward chuckled.

"You kids didn't help, all of that snickering and laughing out there in the audience. Don't think that I didn't see it. You four were all that I could think of, especially you, Edward, reading everybody's mind. I didn't know which way to turn. And then when you all got up and surrounded that thug, I almost panicked," Charlie said.

"We took care of it, Dad. We'll be there tomorrow, too. You don't have anything to worry about at all," I said. "Why don't you go upstairs and get a shower. I'll go ahead and cook you some supper, and then we can watch a movie before you go to bed."

"That sounds great, Bells. I think that I'll do that," Charlie said, rising from his place in the armchair. "I just want to thank you all for everything that you've done for me."

"It's nothing, Charlie. We all love you," Alice said as he started up the stairs.

"I'm going to go outside and have a look around," Edward said. I nodded, and he and I walked outside together. I started down to Charlie's house while Edward started making patrols around the houses. Once inside Charlie's kitchen, I found the ingredients for spaghetti and started preparing enough for Charlie to have enough for tonight as well as a day or two of left-overs. Every-so-often, I'd see or hear Edward as he'd make another pass within range of the house. I'd call out that I loved him, and he'd make a noise on the path that would return the sentiment. I knew that he was being stealthy, just in case.

When the meal was finished, I put the extra in the fridge and put the rest in a tupperware bowl to take to Charlie. As I left the house, I felt a little uneasy. Taking a deep breath, I didn't smell anything that didn't belong in the area. Just to be certain, I leaped onto the roof and walked to the other edge of the house, again sampling the air, not finding anything out of the ordinary. My nerves calmed, I started back to the house at a sprint. Not three seconds later, I was inside, placing the meal on the table. In vampire volume, I told Jasper of my uneasiness. He nodded and stepped by me on his way outside, Alice following at his heels.

Charlie was just coming downstairs when my uneasiness became reality. A helicopter fell out of the sky and machine guns began rippling the house. In less than a second, my body was wrapped around Charlie, and we were safely in the basement. I peeled myself off of him, and examined him from head to toe. Only when I realized that he was unhurt did I breath a sigh of relief. Then I began to take action. I went into the downstairs bathroom and punched a hole in the wall. I removed the rest of the inside wall and started in on the concrete that enclosed the basement. Charlie, wisely, stayed out of the way. Once through, I started making a tunnel into the earth that surrounded the basement, making good time. I just had enough of a tunnel to fit both Charlie and myself and had pulled him in and shrouded his body when my fear was realized. Some explosion racked the house above, extending into the basement, causing the entire foundation to shake as everything above came crashing down into the space that we'd just occupied. Moments later, I heard another explosion, not quite as loud, but enough to cause the earth shake, and I knew that Charlie's home had been demolished as well.

Five minutes later, I heard everyone calling my name in a panic. "We're okay," I yelled back. "I got us into a tunnel from the basement. Can you get to us?"

"No, the fire is still too intense. The emergency response has been activated, and the fire department is on its way. We're going into the woods until the fire is out, then we'll be coming for you. Stay put, love," Edward called back.

"Where would we go? We'll be waiting on you," I said. "I love you, Edward, for eternity," I added in a whisper.

"And I love you, for all eternity," he whispered to me. My grin gave away that he'd answered, and I rested my head against the earthen wall.

"What's going on?" Charlie asked. "I know that you're talking with them."

"The fire's still going too hard for them to get to us, yet. The fire department is on their way. The others are going to hide in the woods until the fire is out, then they're going to come and get us."

Soon, I heard the distinct sound of the fire engines and the police cars. They pulled up to the main house and within minutes, water started pounding the fire above us. The sounds were surreal, when the water hit the fire, the sizzling, the crackling when the fire would start up again when the water would go to other areas, the dripping as some of the water would make its way to the basement.

I could hear the fire chief and the police talking as their subordinates went about their business. "Who bought this place. I'd heard that it was sold, but I never met the new owners," the voice that I'd identified as the fire chief asked the man that I'd identified as a police officer.

"It was sold through an attorney in Washington state. The kids went to school at the high school with my daughter. She'd said that they were a little weird, that they claimed to be married to each other. They really caused a stink with Mrs. Summer last week," the police officer said.

"Oh, those kids lived here? How could they afford this place?" the fire chief asked.

"My daughter said that they didn't seem interested in making friends, except for one of them and Teresa Goodwin. They seemed to hit it off. Maybe she'd have some idea where they got the money. Do you think that there's any way that anyone got out of there?" the police officer asked.

"I don't see how anyone could have gotten out of either house. The only way anyone survived is if they weren't home," the fire chief said. "Do you know about any next of kin?"

"As far as I know, there isn't anyone. I'll try the realtor to see who handled the paperwork for the house," the police officer said.

They went on talking about other things for the next forty minutes that it took to finish putting out the fire. When the fire chief called an end to the effort and moved the engines to Charlie's house, I turned and said, "Charlie, stay here. I'm going to take a look around." I pushed a couple of beams away from the area immediately in front of the tunnel. They were still smoking, but the fire was out. Nothing was hot enough to burn me, however, it was hot enough to burn Charlie. I'd have to clear more of a path in order to get him out. As I made my way through the basement, I heard my family making their way down to me.

"Keep an eye out for our safe. It's fireproof," Jasper said too low for the authorities to hear.

It only took about ten minutes with the four of us working for a path to be cleared which was wide enough for me to carry Charlie out. As I turned to go get him, Edward stopped me by putting a hand on my shoulder. He pulled me into his arms. "I thought that I'd lost you when the missile exploded," he whispered into my ear. "Just let me hold you for a second. Alice will get Charlie." I melted into his arms as the shock of what had happened struck home.

"Did you say a missile?" I whispered.

"Yes. The men in the helicopter shot off two missiles, one here, and one at Charlie's. They wanted to be sure that they got us all," Edward said.

"Where were you?" I asked.

"Jasper and I were on the roof, trying to get a shot at the helicopter, and Ali was in the forest, feeding us the trees that we were throwing at it," Edward said.

"Did you hit it?" I asked.

"Unfortunately, no. By the time we had it set up for the shot that we wanted, it had fired the missile, and we had to run and jump off of the roof into the woods," Jasper said.

"Are any of you hurt?" I asked.

"No, we're all fine," Edward said.

"Okay, let's go," Alice said as she came up to us with Charlie on her back. We followed her, silent as we gazed at what was once our home. As we were almost out of the house, Jasper made a detour to the left. He jumped down a layer, and a minute later, he tossed up the safe. Edward caught it, and we finished our climb out. Once we hit the night air, we ran into the woods.

The others led me into a clearing that they'd obviously been setting up while they were waiting for the fire to be put out. Our tent and sleeping bags were set up at a make-shift campsite that they'd prepared during the wait. I was just glad that Charlie would be protected from the cold of the night.

Thursday morning dawned with smoke still spoiling the air. We could still hear the officers down at the houses, and we decided that we'd make a trek down to our homes and tell them that we'd been camping deep in the woods because of death threats against Charlie. We carried our camping gear much deeper into the woods and set up camp, faking it to look like we'd been camping for a week. Then we started down the mountain with Charlie in tow.

I must say that when the five of us stepped out of the shadows of the mountain trees, there were several mouths that hit the ground, not the least of which, our attorney, Mr. Samuels. We looked around at our homes, both of them, burnt to the ground as he made his way over to us. "Thank God you weren't home! Where were you?" he asked.

"We were camping. What the hell happened here?" Jasper asked.

"Well, there was a fire last night. Didn't you hear the sirens?" Mr. Samuels asked.

"Well, we did hear some sirens echoing, but we were above the tree line. How could this happen to both houses at the same time?" Edward asked, running his hands through his hair.

"That's something that the fire marshal is investigating," Mr. Samuels said. "Why were you camping on a school night?"

"Someone made a death threat against Charlie. We wanted to keep him safe. It looks like we did the right thing," I said, looking around and pulling Charlie into my arms. "Is his office still standing?"

"As far as I know it is," Mr. Samuels said, and then he motioned to one of the officers who joined him immediately. "Officer Whittaker, this is Edward and Bella Cullen and Jasper and Alice Hale. They owned the big house, and this is Charles Swan. He owned the Mother-in-Law house."

"Oh, thank God you weren't at home! I need to call this in. Can you tell me where you were last night?" Officer Whittaker asked.

"We were camping in the mountains," Jasper said. "There was a death threat against Charlie, and we wanted to take precautions to keep him safe."

"What do you mean 'a death threat?'" Officer Whittaker asked, pulling out his note pad. "Who made this threat?"

"Stanley Baker," I said, "though he never said so in so many words. He sent his goons to kidnap Charlie Tuesday night, trying to keep him from testifying in court yesterday. We found him and helped him escape in time to testify yesterday. He obviously tried to get him again last night."

"Do you have any proof of these allegations?" Officer Whittaker asked.

"Well, we can lead you to the cabin where we found him yesterday morning," I said, "but he had his goons do the kidnapping. He's too clever to get his hands dirty directly."

"We'll have to take him later, Bella. We have to find some new clothes and get ready for court. We're due back at nine o'clock," Alice said.

"What will you do for money?" Mr. Samuel asked. "Did you have insurance on the house?"

"We have our usual cash on us, so money isn't a problem, and our insurance papers are safe. We can get them to you later today," Edward said. "Do you know any of the managers of the nicer clothing stores? We'll pay for them to open early for us."

"Sure, Edward. Let me make a few calls, and we should be able to accommodate you. Follow me into town," Mr. Samuel said.

We all got into the car, Charlie squeezed between Alice and me, Edward and Jasper in front. We pulled up in front of the local boutique and Alice jumped out, enthused that she had the whole group under her thumb. She rushed the door, disappointed to find that it was still locked. We ended up waiting nearly fifteen minutes for the manager to arrive and let us in. We only had two hours before we had to be in court, so Alice picked out a suit for Charlie which fit him perfectly. Unfortunately, there weren't any that fit Edward or Jasper. They had to settle for slacks and dress shirts with sweaters over them. Alice and I were able to find some nice sweater dresses that would do for court but would also allow us plenty of mobility for when we would need it to take care of business. We would get some more, more appropriate clothes, later today. For now, we needed to get to the courthouse.


	37. Chapter 37

Chapter 37

Disclaimer – Stephenie Meyer owns it all.

After getting dressed, Mr. Samuel drove us to the courthouse. He escorted us inside, and Mr. Baker's goons were nowhere to be seen. That was lucky for them. We walked towards the courtroom, and when Edward opened the door and we each filed in one by one, Mr. Baker's face told the tell. He became as pale as we were. He started trembling, and when he leaned over to his head goon and whispered, "I thought you took care of them last night," we heard every word.

"We did, too. We blew up both of their houses, just like you said. Those three were standing on the roof when the missile hit the big house. They're not human! I don't know what they are, but they're not human!" he whispered back.

I couldn't help myself. I walked over to Mr. Baker who was still white as a ghost. "That's the first thing that your men have gotten right this whole time," I whispered to him before I turned and walked back to the others way too fast to be human. Mr. Baker fell into his chair. His knees wouldn't support him anymore.

Right then, the bailiff came into the room and called for us all to rise so that the judge could come into the room. We all did, but Mr. Baker had to hold onto the table for support. When the judge sat down, the bailiff said that we could all be seated, and we all took our seats, Mr. Baker almost missing his. It was then that his attorney ran into the room, apologizing to the court for being late. He, too, looked surprised to see us all present and accounted for. When he leaned over to whisper to Mr. Baker, Stanley just waved him away.

"Mr. Swan, are you able to take the stand and proceed today?" the judge asked Charlie.

"Yes, sir. I am able," Charlie said, and he got up from the bench and began walking towards the front of the room. Just as soon as he made it past the defendant's table, one of Mr. Baker's goons leaped up and drew a gun. I rushed to Charlie and threw him to the floor while Edward and Jasper took care of disarming the muscle man. The bailiff took the man into custody, and Edward and Jasper took the opportunity to take out the rest of Mr. Baker's men during the confusion. Alice helped me with Charlie, and soon the room was filled with policemen. I didn't even ask Edward what they'd done with the henchmen. I knew they were currently indisposed, most likely on the roof, waiting to be dealt with at a later time. I also knew that Mr. Baker had just played the last card in his hand. He would not survive the night.

"Order! Order! I'll have order in this courtroom!" the judge kept calling out. Alice and I were sitting next to Charlie who was shaking this time. I think that everything had finally gotten to him. The police chief had finally arrived, and after seeing that it was us who had been involved, explained to the judge that both of our houses had been blown up during the night last night in another murder attempt.

"Mr. Swan, I do believe that someone, and I'll allow the district attorney to investigate who that someone may be, has it out for you. I'm going to adjourn court today. Do you think that you will be up to coming back in tomorrow morning for your testimony?" the judge asked.

"I'm ready now to give my testimony, Your Honor. Nobody," Charlie looked at Mr. Baker, "is going to scare me away."

"Well, I'm glad that you have that intestinal fortitude, Mr. Swan, but let's say that I don't. I need to take the rest of the day off. So if you will come in for a third day, tomorrow will be fine," the judge said.

"Yes, sir. Tomorrow will be fine," Charlie said.

"I presume that you will put a protective detail on Mr. Swan?" the judge asked the Chief of Police.

"Yes, Your Honor. We most certainly will," the Chief of Police said.

"Court is Adjourned," said the judge.

"All rise," said the bailiff, and we all stood.

"Mr. Swan, will you allow us to put you under our protection?" the Police Chief asked.

"No, thank you. My family has protected me so far, and no offense, but I trust them. I've heard that your number one suspect has people inside the force," Charlie said.

"I'm not going to deny that, though I hope that it isn't true. If you change your mind, let me know," the Chief of Police responded.

Charlie nodded, and taking Alice's and my hands, we walked out of the room. Unfortunately, the building was saturated with cops, so we couldn't take Mr. Baker at the moment. We'd have to wait a few hours before we disposed of him, permanent like. So, for now, we walked to the bank and Edward took out enough money to buy us a new 4-wheel drive off road vehicle that would take us where we needed to go. He was mighty pissed that his Aston Martin had been burned up in the fire, and he was determined that Mr. Baker was going to pay for that little indiscretion as well.

We went to the same car dealership that sold us Charlie's truck. The manager recognized Edward when we walked up, and he gave us a good deal on the closest thing to what we were looking for. When we drove home, Alice promised to watch Charlie while we took care of business. She had seen what we were going to do, and she knew that Charlie didn't need to know any of what we were going to do.

In vampire volume, she did ask me to allow the guys to do all of the killing. She said that when Charlie figured it out, he would be extremely hurt to know that it was me that had killed Mr. Baker. She saw that he had lost a great bit of the respect he had for me as his daughter because he had taught me better than that. He had wanted the court system to take care of Mr. Baker. I looked at her, and in vampire volume, I told her that I couldn't let the bastard that had tried so many times to kill my father to walk away. She nodded, but she looked sad.

She headed for the woods with Charlie on her back when the rest of us started for town. We were headed for the ones that Edward and Jasper had "occupied" during the shooting attempt this morning first. Sure enough, they were waiting on the roof of the courthouse. We moved them to the little cabin in the woods and made sure that they were bound with their comrades. Then we went to Mr. Baker's office. There weren't many goons guarding the place. Only three or four were even left to put up a pretense of force. They were incapacitated within seconds. Then there was the office with Mr. Baker in it. His scent was there. I'm sure that he was sitting there with a gun cocked and aimed at the door.

Edward was about to go through the door, but I stopped him with my hand on his shoulder. In vampire volume, I told him that this one belonged to me. He looked at me, started to say something, and then he nodded. I stepped around him and opened the door. The sound of a gun going off rang through the air. I felt the bullet hit me on the forehead. I looked up. Mr. Baker was there with his attorney. Mr. Baker held the smoking gun.

I held up my hand and looked him in the eye. "I wouldn't do that again if I were you," I said as I walked closer to him. "You've already made me angrier than I've ever been in my life today. I think that you've used up your last life today. I wouldn't try me anymore."

"What are you?" he asked.

"Wouldn't you like to know," I said, removing the video camera that his attorney had in his hand. "Isn't it enough to know that you can't escape. Now you've made it so that he can't escape, either."

"Swan isn't one of you, is he?" Mr. Baker said.

"Yes, he is. He's my father," I said. "That makes him one of us, a very important one of us. One of us that I'll kill for. If you would've left him alone after the first time that we let ourselves known to you, you may have lived, but now, that just isn't possible. Your wife not only will get what she wanted in her divorce, she'll get everything you had as a widow."

"You don't have to do this. I'll leave you and your family alone. I swear it!" Mr. Baker said.

"I'm so sorry. You don't learn fast enough. We gave you several chances, and now that you know that we're not exactly human, you have to die. It's either us or the Volturi, and you're really lucky it's us. They don't kill you humanely. In fact, it's me. It could've been one of the others. They have so much more experience in killing humans than I do. In fact, you'll be my first, and I did so want to keep a clean record. Oh, well. Sometimes we all have to do things that we don't want to do," I said.

"You don't have to kill him. I'll do it for you. My record is far from clean. You know that Charlie won't like it if you kill them, B.," Jasper said.

"No, I said I'd do it. Now don't fight me boys. Just tell me the easiest way to do it without falling off the wagon. I don't want to do that," I said.

At that moment, Edward rushed forward and snapped his neck. He had the other one in his arms and was about to snap his neck as well when I leaped on him, pulling him away. "Why'd you do that?" I wailed.

"You were hemming and hawing, and I didn't want you to ruin your record. What's done is done. Now do we have to kill this one?" he asked.

"Yes," Jasper said. "Read his mind. He's in on this, and he won't keep quiet. I can feel it in his emotions."

Edward snapped his neck, and then he went behind the desk and removed a video tape from the recorder that was hidden there. He went to the wall and removed another tape from the recorder that was hidden there, and then he went to the basement and removed a fourth from the building's system. Jasper went back to the desk and fumbled around for keys and found a set that went to a safety deposit box. He took them, and then he took the keys from both men. After that, we left the building the way that we came, from the top floor and the roof. On the way back to the camp-out, we buried them under a boulder in the woods.

When we arrived back at the camp-out, Alice had already set up everything for Charlie. She had marked a good perimeter, and was already on patrol. We told her that we didn't think that there was any reason to patrol any longer, and we were going to stay the night there for safety's sake. She asked about the trip into town, and Jasper explained in vampire volume everything that had happened. She was relieved that I hadn't made any of the kills.

While Charlie was asleep, Edward told Jasper and Alice about my discussion with him over going back to the Cullens. They were astonished that I wanted to try again with Rose, but I told them that I'd been living for the past six years with Rose hating me. That was nothing new on my part. I told them that we'd all gotten along great, and that it was time for the family to see us this way. Emmett missed us, and I was sure that Esme did, too. That left Carlisle. I had a feeling that he wanted us back. We were now homeless. We could either start over here, or we could start over at home, with our family. We discussed all of the possibilities, and the most logical choice was to go home. I was certain that Charlie would go with us. Hopefully, we could get his house back, as well as his job on the force.

The next morning, we got dressed and went back into town, back to the courthouse. We got there right at nine o'clock, and we all took our seats around Charlie, just as usual. When nine o'clock rolled around, the bailiff came out and called for all to rise, and when the judge came out, he was pissed that the defendant and his attorney weren't ready for court. He had someone go call the attorney's office, and no one answered. Because the part of Charlie's testimony that was left was the cross-examination, the judge excused Charlie from the stand and said that they'd waived the right to cross-examine him.

Charlie looked relieved and thanked the judge for his time. Then we all left the courtroom. We had our paperwork with us from the house, so we went to Mr. Samuels' office. He said that he'd been expecting us, and he'd lined up some new houses for us to look at. We looked at each other, and Edward said, "I don't know that we want to look for anything here right now. I think that we want to move on. Things just didn't work out here the way that we were hoping that they would, and I think that we need to try to relocate near some distant relatives. We need you to forward us the final judgement on the houses from the Fire Chief, and when you do, we'll be able to file the paperwork on the houses and the vehicles. Here is our forwarding address."

When we left the office, Charlie said, "Going home to the Cullens, are we?" We all nodded, and he did too. "Good. It's about time."

We went by the school and grabbed our things. The kids were at break when we stopped by, and Theresa came up to me. "Where have you been, Bella?"

"Away," I said. "I had some things to take care of, and then our house exploded."

"Yeah, I heard that. I'm so glad that you're okay. I felt so guilty that the last thing that I said to you was so harsh," she said.

"It's no problem," I said. "I'm over it. We're moving closer to some relatives. It'll make things easier. Good-bye."

"But, Bella, I want to keep in touch," she said.

"I'm sorry, but I don't think that'll be possible. My kind don't do very well with your kind. It was something that Edward and the others tried to tell me, but I just got hurt trying to do," I said, and I took Edward's hand and walked to the truck. We put our things in the back of the truck, and I turned and kissed Edward, hard, reminding myself that he was all that I needed.

The trip back to Lebanon, New Hampshire took less time that it took us to leave it being that we didn't bring back any property. Everything was gone. All of Charlie's antique furniture, all of the furniture that had belonged to his grandmother, everything was gone. All we had to do was drive home, and Edward did that at Mach speeds.

As soon as we arrived at the town limits, we all got nervous, all that is except for Charlie. Charlie was sleeping like a baby. It was almost mid-night. Edward had timed it so everyone would be at home. He pulled into the driveway at five minutes 'til. The family was gathered on the porch by the time that we were parked in front of the house. We all got out, well except for Charlie, and stood beside the truck.

Everyone was silent. I didn't know whether Edward and Carlisle were having a silent conversation, but I guessed that they were. I didn't know if there was some protocol that I was about to breach, but I couldn't stand the silence any longer, so I said, "Well, are we welcomed back, or should we get back in and leave?"

Esme looked at Carlisle for a split second, then she said, "You and Edward continue to work things out," and then she looked at me, "Of course you're welcomed back. I've missed you so much!" She left the stairs and ran into my arms.

I hugged her back and said, "I've really missed you, too. It hasn't been the same without you."

Then she ran to Alice and Jasper and hugged them, too. Then she went to Edward and said, "Son, I've missed you. Please don't ever leave me again." He quit looking at Carlisle and leaned over and hugged her back.

"Mom, I've missed you, too. I don't ever want to leave again. We've got quite the story to tell," he said. Then he walked up to Carlisle who held out his hand to him. Edward ignored the hand and reached out to hug him. "Dad, I'm so sorry that we ran. Bella told me that we should have stayed and fought our battles here, and she had a point. How can we ever get everything straight if we're not here to show you our love for one another?"

I went up to Rose and Emmett and said, "Hi Emmett, I've missed you. Rose, I've missed you, too. We've got to get past the past and be a family. I'm ready to do that. I only hope that you are as well. We've got some stories to tell. We've got a lot of starting over to do, and I can only hope that you'll shop with Alice and me. Otherwise, I've got some long, boring days ahead of me."

"Emmett, did she just say shop?" Rose asked. Emmett nodded. "I guess that I can do that," she said.

I went to the truck and woke up Charlie. "We're here, Charlie. I'll get you upstairs so you can sleep in a bed." I thought that he would want to sleep since he'd been up for so long and hadn't slept well in so many days, but I was wrong. He wanted to talk to Carlisle and Esme, so we told all about our life away from them. He told them about his time as a private investigator and about his one and only client and the trouble that it got him into. We told them in vampire volume about having to take care of the mob and the mob boss. He told them about the missiles and about our homes getting blown up. They were appalled about Charlie losing all of his possessions, and Rose was heart broken about Edward's car.

Esme was horrified that we'd been through everything that we'd been through, and she said that she was thankful that Edward had kept me from killing Mr. Baker and his attorney. Carlisle said that he agreed, though he wished that there'd been another way without the loss of life. However, after Charlie had gone to bed, and we'd finished the rest of the story, he decided that the men got what they'd deserved.

Esme was happy the next morning to tell Charlie that they'd not sold his house, hoping that he'd come back to us. He was ecstatic. The only thing left to do was buy him all new furniture. Edward spent some time during the night setting back up our bank accounts. He and Charlie went to the bank first thing that morning and got money to fund restocking his house. He also got enough money for us some vehicles. He gave Charlie the truck. Then he and I went to buy us a reasonable car to use while in the Cullen family. He gave me enough money to go shopping with Alice and Rose, and I rode with them into Concord in order to replace our wardrobe. We would also be replacing the immediate needs of our men. Some of the shopping was done by online ordering, but at least a day's worth was done in person. I needed to re-establish my connection with the girls.

Over the weekend, we talked about whether or not we would be going back to school. Everyone was sure that we'd be too far behind as far as the school was concerned to start back. We didn't even have a story to tell them that would satisfy anybody's questions. We couldn't say that we were in school because Jasper attended school in the same grade that we did while we were gone. We couldn't say that we ran away because they hadn't reported our absence to the police. We couldn't say that we'd been home schooled because there wasn't any record of us applying to any program. Basically, we'd have to continue to lay low until Jenks could fix up something to satisfy the school system. We decided that we wanted to have been home schooled so Jasper got on the phone with Jenks who e-mailed the documents immediately. We'd played that scenario before, and that's what Emmett and Rose had told everyone anyway.

We managed to get Charlie settled into his home over the weekend as well, and with a small, quiet donation to the police department, they didn't hold any grudge against his leaving without much notice less than three months ago. They graciously reinstated him into the force as if he was never absent, marking his time that he was gone as a leave of absence. He was ecstatic over the turn of events.

When Monday rolled around, we went back to the school with Carlisle who took us to Mr. Vance's office. Carlisle produced the home school paperwork and got us re-registered, and to his credit, Mr. Vance didn't ask why we were pulled out of school just to re-enter less than three months later. We all re-joined our classes and picked up where we left off. Some of the students stared at us when we entered the classes, but none of them were nosy enough to question us about where we'd been. Of course we heard the rumors that went around, but none of us cared enough to listen to them.

Over the next few months, the family took its time adjusting to each other. Carlisle and Rose took the longest, sometimes looking between Jasper and me with loathing on their faces, but we were able to overlook those times, and eventually they forgot that they were supposed to be upset at us and life went back to usual as things were before my indiscretions with Jasper. Edward and I had a wonderful life together. Alice and Jasper also had a wonderful life together. The whole family acted like a family, and we lived in Lebanon for a total of four more years.

During the next twenty years, we moved every four to eight years, as the situation warranted. However, after twenty years, Charlie had a heart attack one day on the job as he was chasing a suspect in the woods. He was pronounced dead at the scene, and was given a full police funeral. Luckily, the day was rainy, and we were all able to attend. I clung to Edward as I sobbed, my life completely behind me now. Charlie had never given in to our offers to change him, and he went out the way he would've wanted to go. Everyone was sad to see him pass away, as they all had grown accustomed to him being around. It was really strange the first time that we moved without taking "Charlie breaks."

After Charlie's death, Alice, Edward and I decided that we wanted something different. We decided that we wanted to go back to medical school. We were already in college, just finishing up an eight year stent in the college town that we were in. Edward and the rest of the family decided that we should go to Hanover, New Hampshire. It was too soon to go back to Lebanon, but Carlisle could get a job at Dartmouth Medical School where we were attending. It all sounded too good. We decided to go for it. Jasper decided to get another PhD in the civil war. Rosalie decided to get a PhD in mechanical engineering, and Emmett decided to get a PhD in Psychology.

We got our acceptance letters within days of each other. We all applied honestly, based on the grades that we'd made in undergraduate school. We found a house and moved in immediately. Carlisle began immediately in his position and loved being back in the teaching world. He was ecstatic and researched all of the time to be ahead of the game. His students didn't appreciate that at all.

When it came time to begin school, we got our invitation to the get to know you party with the Dean of the Medical School the night before. He had been away on business during our interviews, and we hadn't gotten to meet him, but he was supposed to be there that night. We went to the party, and when we got there, Alice and Edward got a smile on their faces. I kept asking them what was going on, and they wouldn't tell me. Eventually, we found the line to meet the Dean, and we gathered around the area so that we could meet him. As he turned from the person that he was talking to, he noticed us and excused himself and walked over to us.

"I'm glad that you finally arrived. It's so good to see you. I'm so sorry that I wasn't here during your interviews. Bella, you look great! I always wondered what you would look like, and you don't disappoint," he said.

"It's good to see you again, Thomas, or should I say, Dr. Gates?" Edward said. "You've done well for yourself, I see, Dean of Dartmouth School of Medicine."

"Well, I had to work hard. My study partner left me during the first semester of my freshman year," he said, "but it looks like her new life agrees with her."

"Thomas? You're kidding? Thomas Gates? My Thomas?" I asked. I hugged him.

"UM, Bella, that isn't really proper here. I am your Dean, and I am right at twenty-five years older than you. My wife isn't going to understand me hugging my students," Thomas said.

"Oh, I'm so sorry, Thomas. Let me introduce me you to my husband, Edward Cullen. I'm Bella Cullen, and this is my sister-in-law, Alice Cullen," I said, picking back up my role as a student, well almost picking back up my role. I still called him, "Thomas."

"Thomas, who do we have here?" an older woman asked as she walked up to him and took his hand.

"Bella and Edward Cullen, Alice Cullen, this is my wife Patricia Gates. I knew Bella's father from back in medical school."

"Oh, I see. Well, it's nice to meet you. Honey, we'd better mingle," she said.

"Yes, dear. It's been nice seeing all of you again. We'll have to talk later," he said, and he winked at us as he turned to walk away with his wife.

"She's jealous of you," Edward said in vampire volume.

"She has nothing to be jealous of. I just missed Thomas. I wonder if he still wants to be turned," I said back.

"I no longer see him as one of us. He'll grow old as a human," Alice said.

The next morning, we gathered in the auditorium with all of the other first time medical students. Dr. Gates came in and introduced himself. He addressed the class.

"May I have your attention? Everyone settle down, please. My name is Dr. Thomas Gates. I am the Dean of Students. I met some of you yesterday afternoon at the Freshman Tea. I want to welcome all of you to the Dartmouth University School of Medicine Class of 2036. Today is a momentous day in each of your lives. Today marks the beginning of your medical education. From this day forward ...

THE END


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